Chinese startup DeepSeek has released a new artificial intelligence model, DeepSeek-V4, which boasts 'drastically reduced' costs and matches the capabilities of top US rivals. The model features an ultra-long context length of one million tokens, putting it on par with Google's Gemini.
The new V4 is released as two versions, DeepSeek-V4-Pro and DeepSeek-V4-Flash, with the latter being a more efficient and economical choice. Experts say V4's arrival marks an 'inflection point' in terms of hardware and cost, addressing long-standing issues of slower performance and higher costs associated with long context lengths.
DeepSeek's latest release is a 'milestone' for Chinese firms, said veteran AI industry analyst Max Liu. 'It's a good thing for the entire domestic AI industry. It can provide better models for domestic users and we can now expect a lot more things -- more products (and a) more competitive market,' he added.
The White House has accused Chinese firms of vying to 'steal' American technology, ahead of an expected summit between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in Beijing next month. However, DeepSeek's AI tools have been widely adopted by Chinese municipalities, healthcare institutions, and businesses, partly driven by its decision to make its systems open source.
