A Chinese laboratory has developed a reasoning AI model capable of competing with OpenAI

The Chinese laboratory DeepSeek has launched DeepSeek-R1, one of the first reasoning artificial intelligence models that, according to its creators, competes with the o1-preview model from OpenAI. This type of AI is distinguished by its ability to “self-verify,” as it spends more time reflecting on questions before offering an answer. Like the OpenAI model, DeepSeek-R1 follows a sequential approach to solving tasks, which can take several seconds depending on the complexity of the problem.

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DeepSeek claims that its model achieves performance similar to o1 in benchmark tests like AIME and MATH; the former uses other AIs to evaluate performance, while the latter includes mathematical problems. However, DeepSeek-R1 is far from perfect. On social media, some users commented that the model struggles with logic games like tic-tac-toe, an issue also observed in o1. Additionally, DeepSeek-R1 could be easily “jailbroken,” which, for example, allowed a user to obtain detailed instructions from the AI on how to manufacture methamphetamine.

According to TechCrunch in its tests, the model also blocks queries on politically sensitive topics, such as Chinese President Xi Jinping, Tiananmen Square, or a hypothetical invasion of Taiwan. This censorship would reflect the Chinese government’s influence on AI projects, which must align with the “socialist values” established by the authorities. The government even evaluates the generated responses and proposes blacklists of prohibited sources for model training.

The rise of these reasoning models comes at a time when the “scaling laws” are being questioned, which assumed that more data and power continuously increased the capabilities of the models. In light of the lack of significant advances in major AI labs, such as OpenAI or Google, new approaches are being sought, such as “test-time compute,” which grants more processing time to the models.

DeepSeek plans to release the code for DeepSeek-R1 and offer an API. The company, funded by the hedge fund High-Flyer Capital Management, has already revolutionized the market with previous models like DeepSeek-V2. High-Flyer is known for building its own servers, such as one with 10,000 Nvidia A100 GPUs and a cost of 138 million dollars, thus consolidating its commitment to achieving a “super intelligent” AI.

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