By Luz Ding, Bloomberg
DeepSeek said it has upgraded the R1 artificial intelligence model that helped propel the Chinese startup to global prominence at the start of this year.
The company completed what it described as a “minor trial upgrade” and is allowing users to start testing it, it said in an official WeChat group on Wednesday. Details of the upgrade weren’t provided and the company didn’t respond to an email seeking further comment.
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The Hangzhou-based startup stunned the global tech industry in January when it unveiled the original R1, a reasoning AI model that outperformed Western players on several standardized metrics, purportedly at a cost of just several million dollars. It triggered a reconsideration of heavy investments in acquiring AI computational resources and a flurry of new model introductions from Chinese players from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. to Zhipu AI.
“The fast pace of model releases and updates since the release of DeepSeek R1 has resulted in some ‘model fatigue’ among investors,” said Gary Tan, portfolio manager at Allspring Global Investments. “Until there is a breakthrough in the model, investors are turning their focus on which internet companies can integrate AI into their operations and create a killer application.”
The debut of R1 turned DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng into a tech celebrity and a symbol of China’s ability to compete with the best of Silicon Valley. In February, President Xi Jinping invited Liang to a high-profile gathering with some of the country’s most prominent entrepreneurs. The young founder was seated among the likes of Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma and Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s Pony Ma.
DeepSeek’s upgrade was announced hours before the latest financial report from Nvidia Corp., the leading maker of AI chips whose shares were pummeled in the immediate wake of R1’s release. Nvidia’s fortunes have recovered since, as AI data center investment has continued at a strong pace, and the US company offered a solid forecast for the current quarter.
–With assistance from Jessica Sui, Winnie Hsu and Saritha Rai.
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