OpenAI Reconsiders Open-Source Strategy Amid DeepSeek's Disruption

Sam Altman Regrets Ditching Open Source, Says He's Been on the "Wrong Side of History"

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek embarrassed OpenAI last week, demonstrating that its cutting-edge AI chatbots can be recreated at a tiny fraction of the cost by using clever workarounds. The app's emergence sent ripples across Silicon Valley, punching a $1 trillion hole through the tech market. It also reignited a debate surrounding the role of open-source code in the AI industry. Despite its name and open-source roots, the Altman-led company has doubled down on working on its proprietary software behind doors while maximizing profits. Meanwhile, OpenAI's competitors, most notably DeepSeek and Meta, have -- broadly speaking -- open-sourced their AI models, allowing experts to examine how they work under the hood. And now it sounds like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is having some regrets about the company's closed-source approach. In short, open source initiatives aren't even close to the company's top priority. On the contrary, OpenAI has accused DeepSeek of training its AI on the output of models like ChatGPT -- a glaring double standard, considering the company has trained its own models by indiscriminately lifting data from the web without permission. Instead, it sounds like users intrigued by open-source OpenAI models will have to make do with the table scraps. When one Reddit user asked if OpenAI would "ever consider open-sourcing your older models that aren't [state-of-the-art] anymore," CPO Kevin Weil suggested that "we'll definitely think about doing more of this." Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose company has made its Llama series of AI models open source, sees DeepSeek's meteoric rise as a wakeup call. "This is a huge geopolitical competition, and China's running at it super hard," he told Joe Rogan in an interview earlier this year. "If there should be an open source model that everyone uses, we should want it to be an American model." Following the market turmoil last week, Zuckerberg reiterated that Meta is still committed to its major $60 billion AI investment, playing down concerns that models may need far less compute to achieve the same results. While it's unlikely we'll see OpenAI open-sourcing any of its models any time soon, the effects of DeepSeek's major disruption have made themselves apparent in other ways. For one, DeepSeek's AI app made a big splash in part because it was free to use. In response, OpenAI has announced that it will make its o3-mini "reasoning" model free as well.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman admits the heyday of ChatGPT is over

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has conceded that the company has lost its edge within the AI space amid the introduction of Chinese firm, DeepSeek and its R1 reasoning model. However, he says the brand will continue to develop in the industry. The company head admitted OpenAI has been "on the wrong side of history" in terms of open-source development for its AI models. Altman and several other OpenAI executives discussed the state of the company and its future plans during an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit on Friday, where the team got candid with curious enthusiasts about a range of topics. "I personally think we have been on the wrong side of history here and need to figure out a different open-source strategy. Not everyone at OpenAI shares this view, and it's also not our current highest priority," Altman said. Recommended Videos Techcrunch noted that OpenAI previously followed an open-source model in the past, but quickly shifted gears as it gained popularity and saw earning potential in generative AI. Responding to a Redditor asking how DeepSeek will affect OpenAI's plans for future models, Altman said, "It's a very good model. We will produce better models, but we will maintain less of a lead than we did in previous years." OpenAI chief product officer, Kevin Weil added that there is potential for the company to make its older, less cutting-edge models open-source. However, he didn't have any specifics about which models, or a timeline on when this could happen. "We'll definitely think about doing more of this," he said. The advent of DeepSeek has put OpenAI into a state of contemplation about its next moves. Having recently launched its o3-mini model, the company is now considering opening up transparency on the reasoning model so users can observe its "thought process." This is a function already available on DeepSeek's R1 reasoning model, which is one of the things that makes it an extremely attractive offering. Altman and Weil also addressed rumors of a price increase for ChatGPT, the AI chatbot app that utilizes most of the brand's models. The CEO discussed hopes to make the price of ChatGPT "cheaper" over time. Currently, its most expensive Pro subscription tier costs $200 per month, while its Plus tier is $20 monthly. Through the AMA, the OpenAI team teased several upcoming products, including its next o3 reasoning model, which may have a tentative timeline between several weeks and several months. The next major model launch timeline still doesn't have a release date, but more than likely will be called GPT-5. There may also be an overhaul of the DALL-E 3 image generator, which hasn't had a major update since with was unveiled two years ago. The executives also addressed the company's collaborations with the U.S. government, which included the establishment of a data center project called Stargate. When asked whether OpenAI's models would be used to develop destructive weapons, in particular, nuclear weapons, Weil stated that he trusted researchers involved in the project to not "YOLO some model output into a nuclear calculation." The AMA follows two whirlwind weeks since DeepSeek announced its R1 reasoning, which is said to rival OpenAI and Meta's models in terms of performance at significantly lower operating costs. The service is also free for users and open source for developers, making it a top competitor. While there are speculations that DeepSeek may have used an illegal method called distillation to extract data from OpenAI to train its own models, pundits have indicated that the damage has already been done. Even President Trump called the turn of events a "wakeup call" for America's AI industry. One of the brand's biggest investors Microsoft, has also begun supporting DeepSeek on Azure cloud and GitHub in an effort to democratize its AI model offerings for its Copilot+ PCs.

Sam Altman admits OpenAI was 'on the wrong side of history' in open source debate

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, made a striking admission on Friday that his company has been "on the wrong side of history" regarding open source AI, signaling a potential seismic shift in strategy as competition from China intensifies and efficient open models gain traction. The candid acknowledgment came during a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" session, just days after Chinese AI firm DeepSeek rattled global markets with its open source R1 model that claims comparable performance to OpenAI's systems at a fraction of the cost. "Yes, we are discussing [releasing model weights]," Altman wrote. "I personally think we have been on the wrong side of history here and need to figure out a different open source strategy." He noted that not everyone at OpenAI shares his view and it isn't the company's current highest priority. The statement represents a remarkable departure from OpenAI's increasingly proprietary approach in recent years, which has drawn criticism from some AI researchers and former allies, most notably Elon Musk, who is suing the company for allegedly betraying its original open source mission. Sam Altman on DeepSeek: 'We will maintain less of a lead' Altman's comments come amid market turmoil triggered by DeepSeek's emergence. The Chinese company's claims of building advanced AI models for just $5.6 million in training costs (though total development costs are likely much higher) sent Nvidia's stock plummeting, wiping out nearly $600 billion in market value -- the largest single-day drop for any U.S. company in history. "We will produce better models, but we will maintain less of a lead than we did in previous years," Altman acknowledged in the same AMA, addressing DeepSeek's impact directly. Sam Altman admits OpenAI's closed strategy may be flawed DeepSeek's breakthrough, whether or not its specific claims prove accurate, has highlighted shifting dynamics in AI development. The company says it achieved its results using only 2,000 Nvidia H800 GPUs -- far fewer than the estimated 10,000+ chips typically deployed by major AI labs. This approach suggests that algorithmic innovation and architectural optimization might matter more than raw computing power. The revelation threatens not just OpenAI's technical strategy, but its entire business model built on exclusive access to massive computational resources. The open source debate: innovation vs. security However, DeepSeek's rise has also intensified national security concerns. The company stores user data on servers in mainland China, where it could be subject to government access. Several U.S. agencies have already moved to restrict its use, with NASA becoming the latest to block the application citing "security and privacy concerns." OpenAI's potential pivot to open source would mark a return to its roots. The company was founded as a non-profit in 2015 with the mission of ensuring artificial general intelligence benefits humanity. However, its transition to a "capped-profit" model and increasingly closed approach has drawn criticism from open source advocates. "The correct reading is: 'Open source models are surpassing proprietary ones,'" wrote Meta's chief AI scientist Yann LeCun on LinkedIn, responding to DeepSeek's emergence. "They came up with new ideas and built them on top of other people's work. Because their work is published and open source, everyone can profit from it. That is the power of open research and open source." A new chapter in AI development While Altman's comments suggest a strategic shift may be coming, he emphasized that open source isn't currently OpenAI's top priority. This hesitation reflects the complex reality facing AI leaders: balancing innovation, security, and commercialization in an increasingly multipolar AI world. The stakes extend far beyond OpenAI's bottom line. The company's decision could reshape the entire AI ecosystem. Open-sourcing key models could accelerate innovation and democratize access, but it might also complicate efforts to ensure AI safety and security -- core tenets of OpenAI's mission. The timing of Altman's admission, coming after DeepSeek's market shock rather than before it, suggests that OpenAI may be reacting to market forces rather than leading them. This reactive stance marks a striking role reversal for a company that has long positioned itself as AI's north star. As the dust settles from DeepSeek's debut, one thing becomes clear: the real disruption isn't just about technology or market value -- it's about challenging the assumption that closely guarded AI models are the surest path to artificial general intelligence. In that light, Altman's admission might be less about being on the wrong side of history and more about recognizing that history itself has changed course.

How DeepSeek and Open Source Models Are Shaking Up AI

Tech companies and academics have long wrestled with the risks and rewards of building open source software. But the frenzy around generative artificial intelligence has lent new significance to the debate. The rise of the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek has only added attention to the issue. DeepSeek recently released an open source model that it said rivaled software from the top American AI developers -- and it claimed to have done so for a fraction of the development cost, using less powerful hardware.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman: Company Considering 'Different Open-Source Strategy' | PYMNTS.com

OpenAI is reportedly reconsidering its recent shift to a closed-source development approach. The artificial intelligence (AI) developer had adopted that approach after starting as an open-source company, but is now rethinking it after DeepSeek's release of a lower cost open-source AI model, Seeking Alpha reported Saturday (Feb. 1), citing OpenAI executives' comments during a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" event held Friday (Jan. 31). OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said during the event that OpenAI needs to "figure out a different open-source strategy," according to the report. He added that not everyone at OpenAI shares that view and that figuring out the strategy is "not our current highest priority," per the report. OpenAI Chief Product Officer Kevin Weil said during the same event that the company was considering open sourcing older AI models, according to the report. Open-source models are AI systems in which the source code is shared openly, letting users voluntarily improve its function and design, and creating a permanent and accessible record of its design, PYMNTS reported in January 2024. While academics and researchers prefer open source, businesses prefer a closed source as it protects their trade secrets. Elon Musk, who helped OpenAI co-founders Altman and Greg Brockman create a nonprofit in 2015, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in March, saying that the company deviated from its mission to develop AI that benefits humanity. "To this day, OpenAI, Inc.'s website continues to profess that its charter is to ensure that AGI 'benefits all of humanity,'" the lawsuit said. "In reality, however, OpenAI, Inc., has been transformed into a closed-source de facto subsidiary of the largest technology company in the world: Microsoft." "DeepSeek has profited from open research and open source. ... They came up with new ideas and built them on top of other people's work," LeCun wrote. "Because their work is published and open source, everyone can profit from it. That is the power of open research and open source." Meta's strategy was to distribute open-source AI models.

OpenAI chief says it needs new open-source strategy

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 1, 2025 (AFP) - OpenAI chief Sam Altman on Friday said his high-profile artificial intelligence company is "on the wrong side of history" when it comes to being open about how its technology works. Altman's comments came during an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit where he fielded questions including whether he would consider publishing OpenAI research. Altman replied he was in favor of the idea and that it is a topic of discussion inside San Francisco-based OpenAI. "I personally think we have been on the wrong side of history here and need to figure out a different open source strategy," Altman said. "Not everyone at OpenAI shares this view, and it's also not our current highest priority." Chinese AI newcomer DeepSeek has made headlines for its R1 chatbot's supposed low cost and high performance, but also its claim to be a public-spirited "open-source" project in contrast to closed alternatives from OpenAI and Google. Open source refers to the practice of programmers revealing the source code of their software, rather than just the "compiled" program ready to run on a computer. This has clashed with private companies' pursuit of revenue and intellectual property protection. Meta, DeepSeek and France-based AI developer Mistral claim to set themselves apart by allowing developers free access to their tools' inner workings. A member of the Reddit group asked Altman whether DeepSeek has changed his plans for future OpenAI models. "It's a very good model," Altman said of DeepSeek. "We will produce better models, but we will maintain less of a lead than we did in previous years."

DeepSeek Impact Makes OpenAI Rethink Open Source -- Sam Altman Hints At Major Changes In Model Development - Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)

OpenAI is contemplating a shift in its open-source strategy as it faces mounting competition from Chinese companies like DeepSeek. What Happened: On Friday, during a Reddit AMA, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman acknowledged that DeepSeek has narrowed OpenAI's lead in AI. "I personally think we have been on the wrong side of history here and need to figure out a different open source strategy," he stated, adding, "Not everyone at OpenAI shares this view, and it's also not our current highest priority." See Also: 14 Million Job Seekers Didn't Hear Back From Potential Employers In Just A Single Quarter Last Year: Now LinkedIn Is Moving To Change That With AI Help "We will produce better models [going forward], but we will maintain less of a lead than we did in previous years." Kevin Weil, OpenAI's chief product officer, mentioned the possibility of open-sourcing older models that are no longer cutting-edge. OpenAI is also exploring ways to reveal more about its models' reasoning processes, a move influenced by DeepSeek's transparent approach. Subscribe to the Benzinga Tech Trends newsletter to get all the latest tech developments delivered to your inbox. Why It Matters: The shift in OpenAI's strategy comes amid a broader debate over open-source versus closed-source AI models. Elon Musk and Meta Platforms, Inc. META CEO Mark Zuckerberg has criticized closed model providers like OpenAI for lobbying against open source AI. This debate intensified when Meta supported Musk's stance against OpenAI's for-profit transition. Despite the competition from DeepSeek, OpenAI's valuation remains strong. Earlier this month, it was reported that SoftBank Group was reportedly in talks to lead a $40 billion funding round for OpenAI, valuing the company at $300 billion. Photo courtesy: Shutterstock Check out more of Benzinga's Consumer Tech coverage by following this link. Read Next: Apple's iPad Turns 15 Today: Here's A Throwback To When Steve Jobs Explained Called It The 'Third Category' After Phones And Notebooks Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. METAMeta Platforms Inc$685.18-0.26%Overview Rating:Speculative50%Technicals Analysis660100Financials Analysis400100WatchlistOverviewMarket News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

OpenAI Finally Has a Competitor, says CEO Sam Altman

In a series of tweets, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman acknowledged DeepSeek as an emerging rival on Tuesday and praised the advanced capabilities of its new R1 model. As DeepSeek takes over the internet and the stock market, Altman also expressed confidence that OpenAI will continue to produce even stronger and more advanced systems. "DeepSeek's R1 is an impressive model," Altman wrote. "We will obviously deliver much better models, and it's invigorating to have a new competitor!" As the conversation about computing heated up with the crash of semiconductor stocks yesterday, Altman added, "We believe more computing is more important than ever before to succeed at our mission. The world is going to want to use a lot of AI and will be amazed by the next-generation models coming." It is interesting to note that while OpenAI is charging $200 a month for its version of the o1 reasoning model, DeekSeek is offering it for free. "Ironic that we got free AI from a hedge fund and $200/month AI from a nonprofit," Avichal, co-founder at Electric Capital, said. This morning, US President Donald Trump described China's DeepSeek AI model as a "wake-up call" for American firms while welcoming it as a positive development toward more rapid and cost-effective methods of advancing AI. Interestingly, he also announced that the US will soon place tariffs on all semiconductors and pharmaceuticals imported from Taiwan. After the stock market collapsed, Deepseek introduced a fresh lineup of models, even though many were still adjusting to R1. The standout among the bunch is Janus-Pro - an advanced autoregressive framework designed to unify multimodal understanding and generation. By separating visual encoding into distinct pathways but keeping a single transformer at its core, Janus-Pro avoids the usual conflicts and gains extra flexibility. "The main two implications of DeepSeek are (1) an acceleration of AI model development until they hit a wall and (2) increased likelihood that there is no wall in the near future," The Wharton School's professor Ethan Mollick said. Yesterday, tech giants like NVIDIA, Microsoft, and Alphabet saw their stock prices plunge, while the Nasdaq 100 and Europe's Stoxx 600 tech sub-index bled nearly $1 trillion in market cap. US stocks, particularly in the semiconductor sector, saw significant losses, while Chinese markets held steady, with their strongest performance relative to US markets in over two years. Chip maker NVIDIA's shares were down nearly 15% on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in early trade on Monday. Speaking at the World Economic Forum (WEF) earlier this month, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said, "We should take the developments out of China very, very seriously."

OpenAI Staff Turn Guns on Each Other After DeepSeek Humiliation

The emergence of Chinese AI startup DeeSeek upended Silicon Valley earlier this week, punching a massive $1 trillion hole through the tech industry. The company's highly efficient yet high-performing "reasoning' model, dubbed R1, suggested that Wall Street may be massively overspending on computing power to run its AI systems. Now it's coming out that DeepSeek rattled employees at ChatGPT maker OpenAI so deeply that it's causing a major rift among the company's staff. As Wired reports, insiders are concerned that OpenAI could soon fall behind DeepSeek, at least in part due to a power struggle between the company's research and product groups. While OpenAI's latest o1 "reasoning" model -- created by the research group -- gets the most public attention, "leadership doesn't care about chat," one former employee who worked on chat told Wired. Another former OpenAI researcher added that DeepSeek did "similar" reinforcement learning for its own R1 reasoning model, "but they did it with better data and cleaner stack." Put simply, OpenAI's o1 model remained experimental, allowing DeepSeek to come out ahead. "It was like, 'Why are we doing this in the experimental codebase, shouldn't we do this in the main product research codebase?" one employee in the research told Wired. "There was major pushback to that internally." The AI industry's turmoil this week raised plenty of glaring questions: are investors really overpaying companies like OpenAI, which have been hellbent on scaling up their AI models' abilities by spending vast sums of money on power-hungry datacenters? According to the Wall Street Journal, the Sam Altman-led company is now looking to raise yet another $40 billion, a round of funding that could balloon its already colossal valuation to a lofty $340 billion. That's in part an effort to shore up enough cash for Trump's shiny Stargate AI infrastructure deal, which is aiming to raise a whopping $500 billion in just four years. It's an astronomical amount of money to be pouring into unproven tech, and investors were clearly spooked by DeepSeek's groundbreaking advancements. Whether OpenAI can regain the crown and calm investors remains to be seen. The company opened up its next-generation "reasoning" model dubbed o3-mini to all users for free today, a lighter-weight and therefore cheaper-to-run model. It's almost certainly intended as a response to DeepSeek, whose open-source models are also available for free. (OpenAI also has the advantage, by the way, of not being beholden to Chinese censorship or being a perceived risk to national security by the White House.) Now that DeepSeek has thrown the gauntlet, investors are likely to push for greater efficiency. But that doesn't necessarily mean OpenAI is about to downscale its operations any time soon. "You do need less compute per unit of intelligence, but people are still going to want more units to scale up even more," independent AI policy researcher and former OpenAI employee Miles Brundage told Wired.

Sam Altman: OpenAI has been on the 'wrong side of history' concerning open source | TechCrunch

To cap off a day of product releases, OpenAI researchers, engineers, and executives, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, answered questions in a wide-ranging Reddit AMA on Friday. OpenAI the company finds itself in a bit of a precarious position. It's battling the perception that it's ceding ground in the AI race to Chinese companies like DeepSeek, which OpenAI alleges might've stolen its IP. The ChatGPT maker has been trying to shore up its relationship with Washington and simultaneously pursue an ambitious data center project, while reportedly laying groundwork for one of the largest financing rounds in history. Altman admitted that DeepSeek has lessened OpenAI's lead in AI, and he also said he believes OpenAI has been "on the wrong side of history" when it comes to open-sourcing its technologies. While OpenAI has open-sourced models in the past, the company has generally favored a proprietary, closed-source development approach. "[I personally think we need to] figure out a different open source strategy," Altman said. "Not everyone at OpenAI shares this view, and it's also not our current highest priority [...] We will produce better models [going forward], but we will maintain less of a lead than we did in previous years." In a follow-up reply, Kevin Weil, OpenAI's chief product officer, said that OpenAI is considering open-sourcing older models that aren't state-of-the-art anymore. "We'll definitely think about doing more of this," he said, without going into greater detail. Beyond prompting OpenAI to reconsider its release philosophy, Altman said that DeepSeek has pushed the company to potentially reveal more about how its so-called reasoning models, like the o3-mini model released today, show their "thought process." Currently, OpenAI's models conceal their reasoning, a strategy intended to prevent competitors from scraping training data for their own models. In contrast, DeepSeek's reasoning model, R1, shows its full chain of thought. "We're working on showing a bunch more than we show today -- [showing the model thought process] will be very very soon," Weil added. "TBD on all -- showing all chain of thought leads to competitive distillation, but we also know people (at least power users) want it, so we'll find the right way to balance it." Altman and Weil attempted to dispel rumors that ChatGPT, the chatbot app through which OpenAI launches many of its models, would increase in price. Altman said that he'd like to make ChatGPT "cheaper" over time, if feasible. Altman previously said that OpenAI was losing money on its priciest ChatGPT plan, ChatGPT Pro, which costs $200 per month. In a somewhat related thread, Weil said that OpenAI continues to see evidence that more compute power leads to "better" and more performant models. That's in large part what's necessitating projects such as Stargate, OpenAI's recently announced massive data center project, Weil said. Serving a growing user base is fueling compute demand within OpenAI, as well, he continued. Asked about recursive self-improvement that might be enabled by these powerful models, Altman said he thinks a "fast takeoff" is more plausible than he once believed. Recursive self-improvement is a process where an AI system could improve its own intelligence and capabilities without human input. Of course, it's worth noting that Altman is notorious for overpromising. It wasn't long ago that he lowered OpenAI's bar for AGI. One Reddit user asked whether OpenAI's models, self-improving or not, would be used to develop destructive weapons -- specifically nuclear weapons. This week, OpenAI announced a partnership with the U.S. government to give its models to the U.S. National Laboratories in part for nuclear defense research. Weil said he trusted the U.S. government. "I've gotten to know these scientists and they are AI experts in addition to world class researchers," he said. "They understand the power and the limits of the models, and I don't think there's any chance they just YOLO some model output into a nuclear calculation. They're smart and evidence-based and they do a lot of experimentation and data work to validate all their work." The OpenAI team was asked several questions of a more technical nature, like when OpenAI's next reasoning model, o3, will be released ("more than a few weeks, less than a few months," Altman said), when the company's next flagship "non-reasoning" model, GPT-5, might land ("don't have a timeline yet," said Altman), and when OpenAI might unveil a successor to DALL-E 3, the company's image-generating model.DALL-E 3, which was released around two years ago, has gotten rather old in the tooth. Image generation tech has improved by leaps and bounds since DALL-E 3's debut, and the model is no longer competitive on a number of benchmark tests. "Yes! We're working on it," Weil said of a DALL-E 3 follow-up. "And I think it's going to be worth the wait."

DeepSeek advances open-source AI -- challenging OpenAI and Anthropic

This story incorporates reporting from Business Insider and MSN. DeepSeek, a Chinese startup, has recently made significant strides in the artificial intelligence domain. On Jan. 20, the company unveiled its new AI model R1, showcasing enhanced reasoning capabilities. This advancement positions DeepSeek as a competitor to American companies like OpenAI and Anthropic. The R1 model has garnered attention for its potential to rival OpenAI's preceding model. Some experts, including software developer Theo Browne, have noted the model's impressive features. OpenAI, on the other hand, has also been progressing. This highlights the ongoing AI race between these technology firms. Despite the proprietary nature of OpenAI and Anthropic models, DeepSeek's open-source approach is challenging conventional methodologies. The release of R1 is a testament to shifting trends in AI, underscoring a strong emphasis on open-source solutions. The impact of these developments is multifold, influencing the dynamics in both the U.S. and global AI sectors. DeepSeek's progress exemplifies the growing influence of international players in AI advancement. This encourages further discussions on innovation, competition, and collaboration across borders, charting a new course for the industry.

OpenAI's Sam Altman Tells What's Next After DeepSeek Disruption

The model outperforms benchmarks set by OpenAI's DALL-E 3 and Stable Diffusion. OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman has finally acknowledged the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek's massive technological capabilities that triggered a $600 billion rout for Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) on Monday. Altman said that he's pretty impressed with the DeepSeek R1 model and what the Chinese firm has delivered at such a low investment. Besides, he also shared his plans for OpenAI and the roadmap ahead which focuses on more computing power. Sam Altman, co-founder of OpenAI, commented on DeepSeek's recently launched r1 model. He also acknowledged its strengths while underscoring OpenAI's competitive edge and shared its long-term vision. Altman noted: "DeepSeek's r1 is an impressive model, particularly for what they're able to deliver at the price. We will obviously deliver much better models and also it's legit invigorating to have a new competitor. We'll pull up some releases." Furthermore, Sam Altman emphasized that OpenAI remains focused on executing its research roadmap moving ahead. He also highlighted the critical role of computational power in advancing artificial intelligence. "More compute is more important now than ever before to succeed at our mission," said Altman. Besides, he added that the growing demand for AI would leave users amazed by the next generation of models. Concluding his statement, Altman expressed enthusiasm for the company's ambitious goals: "Look forward to bringing you all AGI and beyond." Last week, OpenAI faced a major outage ahead of the firm reportedly working to launch ChatGPT's Operator, a new AI agent that will automate tasks for users. This coupled with the DeepSeek disruption has been a double blow to the Silicon Valley AI giant. Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is making faster inroads into the AI market emerging as the top downloaded app on the App Store over the past weekend. The demand soared to such an extent that DeepSeek had to limit downloads at one point in time. The development sent shockwaves across Wall Street triggering a new AI war between the world's two largest economies. Nvidia stock crashed 17% eroding $600 billion from its market cap. In a further announcement, DeepSeek unveiled the release of Janus-Pro-7B, its latest open-source AI model designed to revolutionize multimodal capabilities. Janus-Pro-7B excels in image generation, outperforming OpenAI's DALL-E 3 and Stable Diffusion across multiple benchmarks. As a unified Multimodal Large Language Model (MLLM), it combines advanced understanding and generation capabilities into a single framework. The image below shows the text-to-image generation improvement achieved by this model. A key feature of Janus-Pro-7B is its innovative approach to decoupling visual encoding, optimizing it for both multimodal understanding and image generation tasks. It is clear that the AI war will escalate further as the Chinese AI startup seeks to stay ahead of the curve.

OpenAI CEO calls DeepSeek R1 'impressive' and says it's 'invigorating to have a new competitor'

TL;DR: DeepSeek AI, a Chinese startup, has developed cost-effective large-language models using fewer GPUs, rivaling systems from OpenAI, Meta, and Google. This innovation led to a significant drop in NVIDIA's stock. Despite this, NVIDIA praised DeepSeek's advancements. OpenAI's CEO acknowledged DeepSeek's R1 model and hinted at upcoming superior models, emphasizing continued investment in AI development. DeepSeek AI is making headlines because the Chinese startup has developed cutting-edge and cost-effective large-language models using fewer GPUs than systems costing billions from companies like OpenAI, Meta, and Google. With the company's flagship R1 model performing on par with OpenAI's o1, this has spilled over to the financial markets, where NVIDIA's stock dipped to the point where it saw the biggest single-day drop in US history. Despite its market cap dropping by several hundreds of billions, NVIDIA recently released a statement praising DeepSeek as "an excellent AI advancement and a perfect example of Test Time Scaling." DeepSeek's efforts are being widely praised because it didn't require billions of dollars of AI hardware to train. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman released a short statement earlier today on social media on DeepSeek R1, praising it as an "impressive model" while teasing "much better models" coming soon from the company. He also said that OpenAI will bring a few releases forward in response to DeepSeek's surprising and immediate success. While also teasing AGI. "DeepSeek's R1 is an impressive model, particularly around what they're able to deliver for the price," Sam Altman wrote on X. "We will obviously deliver much better models, and also, it's legit invigorating to have a new competitor! We will pull up some releases."

DeepSeek's Janus Pro model challenges OpenAI in AI image generation

This story incorporates reporting from decrypt, Business Insider, gadgets360 and The Gazette. DeepSeek, a China-based artificial intelligence lab, has once again raised industry standards with the release of its latest image generation model, Janus Pro. The company claims that this new model surpasses leading names like OpenAI's DALL-E 3 in multiple benchmarks. Released as open-source with a permissive license, Janus Pro allows for both academic and commercial use worldwide. The announcement, made on a recent Monday, builds on DeepSeek's momentum from previous breakthroughs, including their R1 model which was noted for its advanced reasoning capabilities. The Janus Pro model employs a novel autoregressive framework, which decouples visual encoding into separate pathways yet maintains a unified transformer architecture. This design, according to DeepSeek's documentation, marks a significant leap forward in image generation technology. DeepSeek asserts that Janus Pro not only matches but often exceeds the performance of task-specific models while maintaining a singular, coherent structure. This positions Janus Pro as a formidable contender for future developments in unified multimodal models. Internal testing by DeepSeek reported that Janus Pro 7B scored 80 percent on the GenEval benchmark and 84.2 on the DPG-Bench benchmarks, which are industry-recognized tests for evaluating image generation models. These figures demonstrate notable advancements in both image stability and detail richness compared to prior models. DeepSeek's technical report highlighted these improvements, attributing the success to enhancements in training processes, data quality, and model size. Furthermore, the model's capabilities have been benchmarked against base, non fine-tuned models from competitors like Stability AI's Stable Diffusion and Pixart Alpha. DeepSeek insists these comparisons favor Janus Pro, showcasing its capacity to outperform under standard conditions without additional model tuning. The introduction of Janus Pro has generated significant attention in the tech sector, influencing market dynamics. Following the announcement, key tech stocks, including Nvidia and Oracle, experienced notable declines. This reflects growing investor awareness of the competitive disruption posed by DeepSeek's innovations in the AI landscape. DeepSeek's consistent release of high-performance models, paired with its decision to open-source these innovations, underscores its strategy to democratize access to cutting-edge AI technology. This move not only cements DeepSeek's position as a disruptor in the field but also aligns with broader trends favoring open-source collaboration in AI development. Conversely, OpenAI and Stability AI have not yet commented on DeepSeek's claims, leaving the industry's response to these new benchmarks to be seen.