DeepSeek, a newly released Chinese AI tool, similar in function to ChatGPT was just released. It is an open source solution and according to the company was developed with much less time and effort than similar AI models. There has been a significant stock market and technology press reaction to the new software. There are concerns that this technology my devalue many venture capital and other investments in AI companies. There are opportunities if in fact these types of AI models can be developed with less effort and cost less to deploy.

A potential reduction in the cost of generative AI may in fact present new opportunities for including AI in SaaS applications. Likewise there are opportunities if new models can be developed quicker.

To get an objective perspective on DeepSeek I found this BBC article helpful as an overview. This other article from BBC talks about the OpenAI and US government view that DeepSeek inappropriately used OpenAI technology and data models to develop the software. It's clear that however it was done DeepSeek has taken a significant step forward on the cost/functionality curve for generative AI.