DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence app, made waves as it soared to the number one spot in Apple’s App Store productivity category, surpassing ChatGPT.
The unprecedented success fuelled global interest, driving a surge in tech stocks. Consumers’ enthusiasm for DeepSeek played a major role in this dramatic shift.
Industry Leaders React to DeepSeek’s Success
Among DeepSeek’s competitors in the large language model (LLM) space, Perplexity’s founder and CEO, Aravind Srinivas acknowledge the achievement.
He noted, “For a while, it wasn’t clear who would beat ChatGPT for the first time. The best we (Perplexity) could manage was #8, a year ago. Look forward to using all their (DeepSeek’s) models for search, assistant, and agents this year.”
Meanwhile, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella made an indirect reference to DeepSeek while speaking at the World Economic Forum. He emphasized, “We should take the developments out of China very, very seriously.”
A Cost-Effective Alternative to ChatGPT
Founded by Liang Wenfeng, a former hedge fund founder, DeepSeek has captured attention for more than just its popularity. Unlike ChatGPT, which offers only a limited free version, DeepSeek’s AI model—R1—delivers ChatGPT-class performance at a fraction of the cost. Reports suggest that R1 even surpasses ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini on multiple parameters.
A Turning Point in AI Competition
Marc Andreessen, Co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz and adviser to former U.S. President Donald Trump, compared DeepSeek’s breakthrough to “AI’s Sputnik moment.”
He drew parallels to the Cold War era, when the launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik sparked anxiety in the West over a potential technological gap.
As reported by timesofindia.indiatimes.com, with DeepSeek proving itself as a formidable competitor, the global AI race has entered a new phase. The company’s success raises pressing questions about the future of AI dominance and innovation worldwide.
