On January 20, 2025, DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company, launched its first chatbot of the same name. Within a single week, this chatbot would claim the top spot as the most downloaded free app on the U.S. iOS App Store, surpassing ChatGPT. Yes – that ChatGPT, the one that surpassed one million users within five days of launch. The one that still gets over 4.5 billion visits every month. This unexpected upset made everyone wonder – what is DeepSeek, and will it change the artificial intelligence game? This article has all the answers.
What Is DeepSeek?
ChatGPT is arguably the best-known AI-powered chatbot on the planet, and it’s made by OpenAI – an American AI research and deployment company. In this case, both the chatbot and the company behind it have the same name – DeepSeek.
We don’t mention ChatGPT by accident – DeepSeek closely resembles this popular chatbot in appearance, functionality, and user experience. Although, DeepSeek is seemingly a little friendlier – it introduces itself before getting down to business.
But this resemblance isn’t some big secret – DeepSeek itself positions its model as a rival to Open AI’s Model o1.
DeepSeek vs. ChatGPT: Which Is Better?
DeepSeek itself has steered us toward a head-to-head battle with ChatGPT right from the start. So, it’s only fair we actually compare them and see which one comes on top.
Believe it or not, DeepSeek performs better than ChatGPT in certain tasks. Tests have shown that this Chinese chatbot can handle complex coding problems better, reasoning through difficult tasks that even ChatGPT’s o1 model struggles with. The same can be said for most technical problem-solving tasks – DeepSeek will provide highly structured responses at the speed of light.
However, ChatGPT has been a reigning champion for over two years for a reason – it continues to excel in certain aspects. It’s still easier to use for everyday users, does creative tasks better, and offers more natural and engaging responses.
As things currently stand, DeepSeek is the better choice for technical tasks, structured content, and deep reasoning. ChatGPT, in contrast, is a great general-purpose AI assistant that will help you nail creative writing.
Will DeepSeek Revolutionize AI?
The jury is still out on whether DeepSeek can surpass ChatGPT and other leading AI models in performance. However, one thing is already abundantly clear – it has completely changed what’s possible in AI by making it much more affordable. And that’s why experts believe DeepSeek will revolutionize AI – it maintains performance on par with top models while drastically lowering costs.
DeepSeek is cheaper to train, run, and maintain – and by a margin. For example, OpenAI reportedly spent roughly $100 million to train its GPT-4 model. Cut this staggering figure by about 18 times, and you get the amount spent by DeepSeek to train its model – just $5.5 million. This discrepancy alone proves that high-performance AI models can be built without relying on massive funding. Investors have understood this almost instantly, as Nvidia – the leading manufacturer behind those pricy high-end AI chips – lost almost $600 billion in market value a week after DeepSeek’s launch. It seems that an AI revolution is already underway.
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