Summary Bullets:

• Chinese startup DeepSeek had released an open-weight model, DeepSeek-R1, with similar capabilities to many of the leading generative AI (GenAI) models available in the market, at a fraction of the cost.

• Like OpenAI o1, R1 is a “reasoning” model. These models produce responses incrementally, simulating a process similar to the way humans reason through problems.

Another week, another AI revelation. The news that Chinese startup DeepSeek had released an open-weight model, DeepSeek-R1, with similar capabilities to OpenAI o1, sent shockwaves through Silicon Valley (and Wall Street) just as the new US administration was inaugurated, with a display of big tech billionaires in attendance. A delicious irony, then, that while inauguration week was capped off with headlines surrounding the muscular Stargate project, a $500 billion initiative to fund AI infrastructure, the quiet (initially) release of DeepSeek-R1 would eventually steal that thunder.

Continue reading “DeepSeek, Deep Irony: How an Unknown Chinese Startup Stole the Limelight from the Stargate Project” →