Last week, the talk of the tech world was a $500 billion artificial intelligence project with White House backing called Stargate.
Over the weekend, conversation – and consternation – began centering on a Chinese-developed language model called DeepSeek. Its app now leads ChatGPT on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store charts, and has put a scare into U.S. AI developers and investors.
Tech expert Omar Gallaga says the impact has extended to the stock market, where companies like Nvidia, which makes chips for AI, have taken a big hit this week.
Highlights from this segment:
– DeepSeek is a large language model (LLM) like ChatGPT and Google Gemini that is now available to U.S. users. It’s open source, which means that other companies and developers can build on it to create their own AI tools.
– Some in the U.S. worry that Chinese ownership could make using DeepSeek risky for Americans, since personal data and search history could fall into the hands of the Chinese government. The U.S. Navy has banned DeepSeek’s use in its ranks.
– OpenAI accused the developer of DeepSeek of using some of OpenAI’s technology in developing the new model. Several tech companies have vowed to investigate.
