In its own research, DeepSeek said it had “distilled” models from its R1 system based on other open-source systems. Unlike OpenAI’s closed systems, some models such as Meta’s Llama are open-source and freely available for use.

The Chinese startup DeepSeek shook up the world of AI last week after showing its supercheap R1 model could compete directly with OpenAI’s o1. While it wiped nearly $600 billion off Nvidia’s market value,

DeepSeek is the biggest story in AI since ChatGPT hit the market. It showed up out of the blue and beat out the best AI models on the market at a fraction of the cost. However, it’s mostly known for the controversies that are piling on.