Chinese startup DeepSeek's launch of its latest AI models, which it says are on a par or better than industry-leading models in the United States at a fraction of the cost, is threatening to upset the technology world order. - REUTERS
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00:00Chinese startup DeepSeek has roiled global stock markets with the launch of its latest
00:05artificial intelligence models. The company says they are on par with or better than industry
00:11leading models in the U.S. at a fraction of the cost, which has led to steep declines for AI
00:17chipmaker Nvidia's shares and others. Here's what we know about the company and its product
00:24Since the release of OpenAI's ChatGPT in late 2022, Chinese tech firms have been
00:30scrambling to create their own chatbots powered by artificial intelligence.
00:35DeepSeek says two of its models have been showered with praise by Silicon Valley executives
00:41and U.S. tech company engineers and are on par with OpenAI and Meta's most advanced models.
00:48It also says that one of them is 20 to 50 times cheaper to use than an OpenAI
00:54model depending on the task. One technology CEO told CNBC he thinks DeepSeek is using
01:00Nvidia chips which are banned from being sold to Chinese companies.
01:04DeepSeek did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegation.
01:09The company is a Hangzhou-based startup whose controlling shareholder is Liang Wenfeng,
01:15co-founder of quantitative hedge fund HiFlyer based on Chinese corporate records.
01:20It is unclear how much HiFlyer has invested in DeepSeek.
01:24The two companies have offices in the same building and HiFlyer owns patents related
01:29to chip clusters used to train AI models, according to Chinese corporate records.
01:35DeepSeek's success has already been noticed in China's top political circles.
01:40Last week on the day DeepSeek released a new product to the public,
01:44company founder Liang attended a closed-door symposium hosted by Chinese premier Li
01:50Qiang according to state news agency Xinhua. Liang's presence at the gathering is potentially
01:56a sign that DeepSeek's success could be important to Beijing's policy goal of overcoming Washington's
02:03export controls and achieving self-sufficiency in strategic industries like AI.