Washington: Chinese AI startup DeepSeek has gained international attention following the launch of its affordable R1 model, which has been praised by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
On Monday, Altman described DeepSeek's R1 as "impressive" on X (formerly Twitter) but reiterated OpenAI's belief that greater computational power is crucial for advancing artificial intelligence.
DeepSeek's innovative approach has disrupted the industry narrative. Last month, the company revealed in a research paper that its DeepSeek-V3 model was trained with less than $6 million in computational resources using Nvidia's lower-cost H800 chips. The newly launched DeepSeek-R1 is reportedly 20 to 50 times more cost-effective than OpenAI's o1 model for certain tasks, according to the company’s official WeChat account.
Altman acknowledged DeepSeek's achievement but maintained OpenAI’s focus on high-compute strategies.
"DeepSeek's R1 is an impressive model, particularly around what they're able to deliver for the price," Altman said. "But we remain committed to our research roadmap and believe that greater computational power is more important now than ever to achieve our goals."
DeepSeek's rise has sparked questions about the necessity of the massive investments made by U.S. tech companies in AI development. The news has also impacted the stock market, with shares of several leading tech firms, including Nvidia, experiencing declines. Nvidia faced a historic one-day loss of $593 billion in market value on Monday—the largest single-day loss ever recorded on Wall Street.
The emergence of cost-efficient models like DeepSeek's R1 is reshaping the conversation around AI research and investment, highlighting the growing competition between global players in the race to define the future of artificial intelligence.
