Chinese AI startup DeepSeek has temporarily paused the registrations of new users due to a cyberattack. It was launched just weeks ago and soon became the top-rated free app on Apple’s App Store in the United States.
DeepSeek faced its longest service outage on Monday in three months due to overwhelming traffic and the attack on its systems. Users reported difficulties logging in and also accessing the platform.
The DeepSeek AI assistant is powered by DeepSeek-V3 model, which is an assistant designed to use significantly less data compared to other AI models and also operates at a fraction of the cost of existing AI models. DeepSeek-V3 is being praised as one of the most advanced open-source models globally due to its performance levels comparable to leading closed-source models.
The immense success of DeepSeek has captured attention of Silicon Valley and of course challenging the long-held belief in U.S. dominance in artificial intelligence.
The company said DeepSeek-V3 was trained using Nvidia’s H800 chips and cost less than $6 million. This means its cost was considerably less than the typical investments needed for AI models.
DeepSeek was founded in 2023 in Hangzhou and has quickly become a standout in the crowded field of Chinese AI startups. Companies like Baidu have developed AI models, but DeepSeek is the first to gain significant recognition from the U.S. tech industry. It has matched or surpassed the performance of leading American AI models.
The journey of DeepSeek from its launch to topping global app charts highlights shifting dynamics in the AI race.
