DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, has achieved a significant milestone by surpassing ChatGPT to become the top-ranked free app on the US Apple App Store. The company’s AI Assistant app, powered by the DeepSeek-V3 language model, has gained rapid popularity since its release on January 10th, according to app data analysis firm Sensor Tower.
DeepSeek’s rise to prominence highlights the increasing competitiveness of Chinese AI development and challenges the notion of US dominance in the field. The DeepSeek-V3 model has garnered praise for its performance, with its creators claiming it rivals or even surpasses leading US-developed AI models.
The company’s success has also raised questions about the effectiveness of US export controls on advanced chips. DeepSeek researchers reported using Nvidia H800 chips to train their model, which are less powerful than the top-tier chips targeted by US restrictions. This revelation has sparked debate about the ability of export controls to hinder China’s AI advancements.
Despite its recent success, DeepSeek remains relatively unknown. Founded in 2023 in Hangzhou, the small startup emerged amidst a wave of Chinese companies developing large language models following the release of Baidu’s Ernie Bot. DeepSeek’s AI Assistant is the first Chinese-developed app to achieve widespread recognition in the US tech industry, signaling a potential shift in the global AI landscape.
