DeepSeek's sudden explosion just changed the AI game

AI-generated images of a cat
AI-generated images created with DeepSeek's Janus model (Image credit: Julian Goldie SEO vis YouTube)

For the last few years, a few names have dominated the AI space. Big guns like OpenAI, Google and Adobe have owned the conversation since 2023, so it's no surprise that the industry is a little, well, surprised, to see a new contender turning heads. Seemingly out of nowhere, DeepSeek is apparently causing consternation for everyone from OpenAI to NVIDIA.

DeepSeek has been quietly impressing the AI community for a couple of years, but it's suddenly exploded into the mainstream with the release of its R1 model (not to be confused with the Rabbit R1), which it claims to have a performance on a par with OpenAI’s o1 model. Not only is DeepSeek suddenly top of global app store charts, but it's also caused US tech firms' stock to crash, and OpenAI to promise 'better models' in response.

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Daniel John
Design Editor

Daniel John is Design Editor at Creative Bloq. He reports on the worlds of design, branding and lifestyle tech, and has covered several industry events including Milan Design Week, OFFF Barcelona and Adobe Max in Los Angeles.

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