A Chinese AI firm has unveiled DeepSeek-V3, a powerful new language model that promises to redefine the landscape of artificial intelligence with its cost-effectiveness and open availability. Released on Thursday, DeepSeek-V3 directly challenges the dominance of closed models like OpenAI’s GPT series, raising important questions about the future of AI accessibility and affordability.
The company’s internal testing shows that DeepSeek-V3 excels in English, Chinese, coding, and mathematics, rivaling even leading commercial models like OpenAI’s GPT-4o. Boasting 671 billion parameters, the model’s size dwarfs Meta’s Llama 2 (70B) and surpasses Llama 3.1 (405B), potentially contributing to its claimed superior performance.
Individual users can explore its potential through a free chatbot available on DeepSeek’s website. This interactive tool not only searches the web but also provides valuable insights into the model’s decision-making process by displaying its reasoning steps.
Powerful, Yet Cost-Effective
DeepSeek-V3 offers similar performance to what the community calls “frontier models” while excelling in lower development and operational costs. DeepSeek claims it spent a mere $5.5 million training the model, a fraction of the estimated over $100 million invested by OpenAI in GPT-4.
The company further asserts significantly lower prices for their online services, with one million tokens priced at just $1.1, currently offered at a promotional rate of $0.28—a dramatic contrast to GPT-4o’s $10 pricing.
Adding to its disruptive potential, DeepSeek-V3 is available for free download and local execution. This offers significant advantages for users prioritizing data privacy, those working in areas with limited internet access, or anyone seeking greater control over their AI tools. This contrasts sharply with models like Microsoft’s Copilot, Google’s Gemini, and OpenAI’s GPT series, which require a constant internet connection.
For businesses prioritizing data security, deploying a local copy of DeepSeek-V3 offers a powerful solution, enabling them to harness cutting-edge AI without compromising sensitive information.
Still Too Large for Local Use
However, the sheer size of DeepSeek-V3 presents a significant hurdle for home users. Running DeepSeek-V3 requires substantial hardware, well beyond the capabilities of standard PCs and smartphones. As a result, individual users will likely prefer its free chatbot.
Verifiable real-world examples of successful local execution remain limited, and independent verification of the company’s performance claims is still needed. One blogger claimed the model can run on a cluster of eight Apple Mac Mini Pros, each equipped with a powerful M4 chip and 64 gigabytes of memory, with the entire rig costing over $10,000.
DeepSeek acknowledges the model’s large size and less-than-perfect speed, attributing these limitations to current hardware constraints. They express optimism that advancements in hardware will naturally resolve these issues.
According to a research paper posted on the company’s website, DeepSeek’s ultimate goal is to achieve artificial general intelligence while maintaining a commitment to open access and long-term development.
