DeepSeek chatbot rivals ChatGPT and reshapes AI landscape

DeepSeek’s efficient AI model challenges U.S. tech dominance.

This photo illustration features the DeepSeek app displayed on a mobile phone in Beijing on January 27, 2025. Photo by Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images

By Alana Salsabila and Clarisa Sendy

A new chatbot created by Chinese tech firm DeepSeek is revolutionizing the artificial intelligence (AI) landscape, stirring excitement and concern in equal measure. The chatbot, designed to rival industry leaders like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude, has demonstrated remarkable performance while operating with significantly fewer resources.

This disruptive entry into the AI world has sent shockwaves through the U.S. stock market and catapulted DeepSeek into the spotlight. On Monday, the chatbot temporarily limited registrations due to a cyberattack, while also experiencing outages from overwhelming traffic. Despite these hurdles, the app quickly became the most downloaded free app on Apple’s App Store, surpassing ChatGPT.

Testing DeepSeek revealed its potential to disrupt the dominance of AI giants. It solved complex math, physics, and reasoning problems twice as fast as OpenAI’s ChatGPT. For programming-related questions, including those often posed in technical job interviews, DeepSeek provided responses that matched the depth and speed of its competitors.

However, its performance varied depending on the task. DeepSeek demonstrated superior accuracy when scraping the web for information, delivering fewer hallucinations than ChatGPT. For creative tasks like composing poems or planning vacations, its output felt slightly less polished.

DeepSeek’s functionality, however, is not without controversy. The chatbot is heavily censored for American users, particularly when addressing politically sensitive topics. For example, queries about the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre were met with responses stating the information was “beyond my current scope.” Similarly, questions about shortcomings of the Chinese Communist Party were deflected with excuses of “high traffic.”

Even innocuous questions about Chinese governance sometimes resulted in incomplete responses that disappeared after being written. Despite these limitations, some users on platforms like X and Reddit have reportedly bypassed the censorship by employing creative workarounds, such as replacing letters with special characters.

As with many AI platforms, DeepSeek uses input from users to train its models. This practice, while common among AI companies, has raised privacy concerns among users who may not be fully aware of how their data is utilized.

While DeepSeek excels in many areas, it does have notable weaknesses. For instance, it cannot provide live weather updates—a feature ChatGPT supports by integrating data from local news and meteorology websites. Additionally, DeepSeek struggles with tasks like analyzing documents, such as PDFs of financial statements, where competitors like Claude and ChatGPT outperform it.

When asked about its competitive advantages, DeepSeek emphasized cost efficiency, customization, and its expertise in Chinese language and culture. It framed itself as a specialized tool catering to specific needs, particularly for Chinese users, in contrast to ChatGPT’s generalist approach.

DeepSeek’s rise reflects the growing global competition in the AI sector. With its advanced capabilities and cost-effective model, the chatbot challenges the prevailing notion that only U.S.-based tech giants can dominate the AI market. DeepSeek’s ability to achieve such feats with fewer resources has raised questions about the sustainability of U.S. leadership in AI development.

The chatbot’s efficiency is a testament to innovative engineering, leveraging methods that optimize computing resources while maintaining high performance. This approach aligns with the broader trend of making AI more accessible and cost-effective, a move that could redefine the industry.

Concerns over open-source AI

DeepSeek’s entry also underscores the debate surrounding open-source AI. By sharing its code openly, DeepSeek has enabled other developers and companies to build on its technology. While this accelerates innovation, it also raises concerns about potential misuse, such as spreading disinformation.

In the U.S., lawmakers are considering regulations to limit the open-source distribution of advanced AI technologies, fearing it could undermine national security. However, experts argue that stifling open-source AI in the U.S. might allow competitors like China to gain an edge in AI research and development.

DeepSeek’s emergence highlights the shifting dynamics of global AI competition. As Chinese companies like DeepSeek push the boundaries of what’s possible, they challenge the dominance of U.S. tech giants and force the industry to adapt to a rapidly changing landscape.

While DeepSeek’s chatbot is not without flaws, its success demonstrates the potential for smaller, resource-efficient players to disrupt the AI market. As innovation continues, the balance of power in the AI sector may hinge on how companies and governments address issues like open-source policies, data privacy, and international competition.

For now, DeepSeek’s chatbot stands as a symbol of a new era in AI development, where innovation knows no borders, and efficiency is as critical as capability.

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