Chinas DeepSeek Unveils Latest Models After Disrupting Global Tech Industry Last Year

DeepSeek Unveils Latest AI-Powered Chatbot Models

A Chinese startup, DeepSeek, has released preview versions of its latest artificial intelligence-powered chatbot models, DeepSeek-V4-Pro and DeepSeek-V4-Flash. The company claims that these models surpass its previous flagship model, DeepSeek-R1, which was launched a year ago.

DeepSeek’s V4-Pro and V4-Flash follow an open-source model, allowing developers to use and modify them freely. According to the company, DeepSeek-V4-Pro outperforms all rival open models in math and coding capabilities, while trailing only Google’s Gemini 3.1-Pro for world knowledge.

The performance of DeepSeek-V4-Pro is said to be marginally short of OpenAI’s GPT-5.4 and Gemini 3.1-Pro, suggesting a developmental trajectory that lags behind state-of-the-art models by approximately 3 to 6 months. The “flash” model has similar reasoning abilities as the “pro” version but offers faster response times and cost-effective usage pricing.

DeepSeek’s previous model, DeepSeek-R1, was notable for its capabilities comparable to those of ChatGPT and Gemini, which sparked significant attention in the tech sector. The company claims to have spent less than $6m on computing costs, a fraction of the multibillion-dollar budgets typically seen in Silicon Valley.

The release of DeepSeek’s latest models has been met with interest from tech analysts and investors. However, some have questioned the company’s account of its working resources, suggesting that it may have had access to greater funding and more advanced chips than acknowledged.

In response to concerns about data protection and Chinese government censorship, multiple countries including the US, Australia, Taiwan, South Korea, Denmark, and Italy have introduced bans or restrictions on DeepSeek-R1.

Source: Al Jazeera