DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) startup, has been in the limelight, shaking the entire global tech industry as it offers comparable performance to the world's best AI chatbots. 

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Released on January 20, DeepSeek has quickly impressed AI geeks before getting the attention of the tech industry as well as the world. 

DeepSeek has shaken the world as it claims that its latest AI model, R1, performs on a par with those of OpenAI, despite using less advanced computer chips and consuming less energy. 

Also read: 'If you could do it cheaper...': Trump calls DeepSeek a 'wake-up call' for US tech industry

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DeepSeek explained 

The Chinese-made model DeepSeek was founded in 2023 by Liang Wenfeng, the chief of AI-driven quant hedge fund High-Flyer. 

The company has been developing AI models that are open source, which means that the developer community at large can inspect and improve the software. 

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As soon as the model got the hype, its mobile app surged to the top of the iPhone download charts in the US. The app was downloaded 1.6 million times by Jan 25 and ranked no. 1 in iPhone app stores in Australia, Canada, China, Singapore, the US, and the UK, according to data from market tracker App Figures.

Also read: DeepSeek or Deep Secrecy? Netizens slam China's new AI chatbot for deflecting questions on dark Chinese history

The app is, however, different from other chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT as it articulates its reasoning before delivering a response to a prompt. 

Moreover, the company is also offering licenses for individuals interested in developing chatbots using the technology to build on it, that too, at a price lower than what OpenAI charges for similar access. 

Also read: Chinese AI sensation DeepSeek dethrones ChatGPT but limits users amid 'malicious' cyberattacks

Other key models in Chinese AI industry

Alibaba Cloud’s Qwen-2.5-1M

Alibaba Cloud’s Qwen-2.5-1M is the e-commerce giant's open-source AI series, which contains large language models that can easily handle extremely long questions and engage in longer and deeper conversations. 

Moreover, it is improving to understand complex tasks, including reasoning, dialogue, and comprehending code. 

Baidu's Ernie Bot 4.0

China's dominant search engine Baidu developed Ernie Bot, which was the first AI chatbot made available to the public in China. Baidu said that the model was released publicly to collect massive real-world human feedback to build its capacity. 

Also read: Introducing ChatGPT Gov: OpenAI launches tailored version for US government amid rise in AI competition

Just like OpenAI's ChatGPT, users of Ernie Bot can also ask questions and can generate images based on text prompts. 

ByteDance's Doubao 1.5 Pro

It is an AI model released by TikTok's parent company ByteDance last week. It is currently one of the most popular AI chatbots in China, with 60 million monthly active users. 

According to ByteDance, Doubao 1.5 Pro is better than ChatGPT-4o in retaining knowledge, coding, reasoning, and Chinese language processing. 

(With inputs from agencies)