DeepSeek AI, the new AI chatbot platform has become a global sensastion. The Chinese startup from Hangzhou, China has recently surpassed the likes of ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity as the most downloaded app on Apple’s App Store. You need to know some shocking facts about this new AI platform. So, in this post, we talk about what DeepSeek AI is, its language model, how to use it on mobile and desktop, and more. Keep reading.
What is DeepSeek AI?
DeepSeek AI is an AI chatbot just like ChatGPT accessible on mobile and the web. It runs on large language model (LLM) just like ChatGPT. And just like the US chatbot, it also gives answers to users’ queries in a natural human-like manner. The company says that the chatbot has been designed to “answer your questions and enhance your life efficiently”. And it seems to do so in a completely stunning manner. It runs on the R1 model and possesses 670 billion parameters.
DeepSeek AI was launched in late 2023 by a Chinese entrepreneur and hedge fund manager Lian Wenfeng. So far, it has released AI models – DeepSeek-V3, DeepSeek V2.5, and DeepSeek-R1 with the latter out just recently in January 2025.
Its rise has also affected the market. Alphabet, Google’s parent company’s stocks fell 4.03% while Microsoft saw its share go down by 2.14% on Monday. The biggest loser was Nvidia which saw its shares plunge 17% losing $600 billion in market capitalization.
DeepSeek AI is built on Nvidia chips
Although DeepSeek AI has made all sorts of headlines in the past few days, it’s also noteworthy that the Chinese startup cost it only $5.6 million to train its language model using Nvidia H800 chips. OpenAI cost $63 million to train its language model GPT-4. The company couldn’t import high-performance processors from the US due to the ban. Therefore, the company relied on a lower-end chipset to train its AI model to be highly efficient.
Since its release, experts have admired the efficiency of DeepSeek-V3 and DeepSeek-R1 models and praised them as being on par with OpenAI and Meta’s models. “DeepSeek R1 is AI’s Sputnik moment,” declared venture capitalist Marc Andreessen on X.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that it is an “impressive model”. Even U.S. President Donald Trump said that DeepSeek AI’s electric rise is “a wakeup call for our industries.”
What does it mean for the US?
The US has felt that restrictions on tech imports could win it a battle in the tech race. However, that has compelled Chinese firms to resort to different approaches. First, it brought 5G phone (Huawei Mate 60 Pro) in late 2023 while Android’s replacer HarmonyOS is already a big deal at least in China. And as the country considers AI a big deal, DeepSeek has now become another testimonial to its growing tech independence and brilliance.
DeepSeek was not possible with advanced chips from the US or other countries due to the ban. So, it used Nvidia chip inventories to train its AI models. This phenomenon might compel the US to think that the ban on China might be counterproductive.
US rides on firms like OpenAI, Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Meta for technology edge. But the Chinese companies are also keeping up with the race and more amusingly at a much lower budget.
How to use DeepSeek AI?
On the web
To use DeepSeek on the web browser, do the following:
- Visit deepseek.com
- Click on Start Now
- Sign Up or Log In (you can create an account using your Gmail address)
- After the account is created, an interface opens wherein, you ask your queries and get answers
On the web version, you can see your chat history queries on the left side
On mobile phone
To use DeepSeek on a smartphone, follow the steps below:
- Go to your respective app store on Android and iOS
- Search, find, and install DeepSeek app
- Sign Up or Log In
- Then enter your queries to get answers
DeepSeek has also made its API available at $0.14 for one million input tokens which is extremely cheap against OpenAI’s $7.5 rate for 01.
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Is DeepSeek AI available in Nepal?
DeepSeek AI is available in Nepal. You can use it on Android, iOS, or on the web. Thankfully, it’s also free to use and is an open-source. The platform has become highly popular at the moment. So, lots of people are trying to access it. So, it’s possible that you notice some delay while creating accounts or conversing with the chatbot, but it’s certainly available for Nepali users.
ChatGPT vs DeepSeek: The battle of the two big AIs?
DeepSeek feels similar to ChatGPT. It responds fast and answers most answers from the web. Just like ChatGPT, it seems intelligent offering natural responses and following up from the previous queries. It also lets users check chat history and looks well-knowledgeable on a vast range of topics.
The only limitation is that the Chinese platform doesn’t give answers to questions that are too politically related to and not limited to “Tiananmen Square.” Other than that, it’s pretty much high-performance, intuitive, and satisfying. Or at least, we can say that it works as effectively as ChatGPT. However, many believe that DeepSeek is not as secure as ChatGPT because the latter took much time and fortune to build.
Recently, DeepSeek suffered cyberattacks so operations were down. It couldn’t work flawlessly also due to the huge traffic influx. And that’s not entirely bad. Its stakes are still rising globally. So, let’s see when things stabilize for it.
Comparisons with ChatGPT are made but one thing is sure now. ChatGPT is no more a sole competitor to Google or let’s say it has its own rival in DeepSeek, Perplexity, etc. Going ahead, OpenAI is working on o3 model to become more competitive. So, it will be interesting to see how the viral Chinese AI evolves after its raging success at present.
The competition in the AI is growing and states like China is taking it as a key asset. Competition is good as it unleashes more creativity and helps make life easier. It’s supposed to do so. It’s best that such innovations are not used to harm and malign others.
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Have you tried DeepSeek? If you haven’t, then you should give it a try and share how you feel about it in terms of efficiency, answer, and flow of its responses.
