What Is DeepSeek?
Learn about DeepSeek, its models, and the impact it has made in the AI world.
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For years, advanced AI remained an exclusive domain, with giants like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic locking their breakthroughs behind costly paywalls—like admiring a high-performance sports car that only a select few could ever drive.
DeepSeek has revolutionized the AI landscape by offering fully open-source and open-weight models under the MIT license, allowing anyone to download, customize, and deploy them without restrictions. Unlike proprietary models, DeepSeek provides access to the model architecture (open-source) and pretrained weights (open-weight), enabling users to run these models independently on their infrastructure.
Educative byte: Open-source means the model’s code and architecture are publicly available, while open-weight means the pretrained model weights are also shared, allowing users to run and fine-tune the model. DeepSeek is both offering full transparency and flexibility for self-hosting or modification.
Building upon the foundation laid by projects like Meta’s Llama, DeepSeek has introduced DeepSeek-V3 and DeepSeek-R1 models, accessible through their API with competitive pricing for those who prefer a hosted solution. For instance, the deepseek-chat model (DeepSeek-V3) is priced at $0.07 per million input tokens (cache hit), $0.27 per million input tokens (cache miss), and $1.10 per million output tokens. Similarly, the deepseek-reasoner model (DeepSeek-R1) is available at $0.14 per million input tokens (cache hit), $0.55 per million input tokens (cache miss), and $2.19 per million output tokens.
Educative byte: Note that the price for cache hit is lower than cache miss. This is because, in a cache hit, the request uses previously processed data, whereas, in the case of a cache miss, fresh computations are performed.
To put the cost savings in perspective, companies using GPT‑4o might pay between $0.01 and $0.03 per 1,000 tokens—a figure that can balloon into millions annually for high‑volume businesses. With DeepSeek’s self‑hosted approach, those expenses disappear, making top‑tier AI accessible and economical. DeepSeek offers two flagship models designed to meet diverse needs:
DeepSeek‑V3: As the robust, fully open‑source base model, DeepSeek‑V3 leverages a Mixture‑of‑Experts architecture, incorporating innovations like Multi‑Head Latent Attention (MLA) and advanced load balancing. This design ensures high performance even on modest hardware setups, offering speed and cost efficiency.
DeepSeek‑R1: Building on the V3 foundation, DeepSeek‑R1 is tailored for advanced reasoning. Unlike many models focusing solely on text generation, DeepSeek‑R1 is fine‑tuned through reinforcement learning to excel at logical problem‑solving and decision‑making. It doesn’t just predict the next word—it thoughtfully navigates complex challenges.
DeepSeek’s approach is redefining what’s possible in AI by combining openness, efficiency, and innovation—making high‑performance, accessible AI a reality for everyone.
Don’t worry about the technical terms for now—we’ll explain everything in detail later in the coming lessons.
How DeepSeek is already transforming industries
DeepSeek’s innovative AI technology is already being embraced across various industries. Its open‑source models have empowered companies to tackle complex challenges—from fortifying cybersecurity and personalizing customer experiences to streamlining financial fraud detection and refining autonomous vehicle systems. By providing robust reasoning capabilities and cost‑efficient performance, DeepSeek enables organizations to enhance operational efficiency and drive innovation without exorbitant expenses.
The technology’s flexibility means it can be tailored to various applications. For instance, DeepSeek monitors networks in cybersecurity and detects anomalies before they escalate into breaches. In e-commerce, it analyzes user behavior to deliver dynamic, personalized recommendations. Financial institutions leverage DeepSeek for sophisticated fraud detection, while the automotive sector integrates it into advanced driver‑assistance systems and autonomous vehicle navigation.
Moreover, sectors like telecommunications, energy, and pharmaceuticals are finding value in DeepSeek’s ability to process vast amounts of data and generate actionable insights. Whether optimizing energy distribution, automating customer support with intelligent chatbots, or accelerating drug discovery, DeepSeek’s technology proves its versatility and reliability in solving real‑world problems. Perhaps most notably, integrating DeepSeek‑R1 into AI‑powered search platforms like Perplexity has raised the bar for search accuracy and reasoning, setting a new standard for how AI can transform user experiences. The broad adoption of DeepSeek across industries underscores its role as a game‑changer in making high‑performance, accessible AI a reality for everyone.
Industry | Key Application |
Cybersecurity | Network monitoring, threat detection |
E-commerce | Personalized product recommendations |
Financial services | Fraud detection, transaction analysis |
Automotive | Autonomous driving, sensor data processing |
Telecommunications | Customer support automation, service management |
Energy | Optimization of energy distribution, consumption forecasting |
Pharmaceuticals | Drug discovery, molecular analysis |
AI-Powered search | Enhanced search accuracy and reasoning |
Why does DeepSeek matter?
DeepSeek isn’t just reshaping the present—it’s charting a course for a future where open‑source AI stands shoulder‑to‑shoulder with closed‑source giants. Imagine a world where state‑of‑the‑art models are no longer shrouded in secrecy but are accessible to anyone curious enough to explore how they tick. This isn’t a distant dream; it’s happening now, and DeepSeek is leading the way.
With DeepSeek’s fully open‑source approach and detailed technical reports, we’re unlocking the inner workings of high‑performance AI models. No longer confined to closed proprietary boxes, researchers, developers, and enthusiasts can dive deep, understand, and even improve upon these systems. This transparency isn’t just empowering—it catalyzes rapid innovation and collaboration across industries.
As open‑source models evolve to rival—and potentially surpass—the capabilities of closed‑source systems, the entire AI landscape will be transformed. In the remainder of this course, we’ll uncover the layers of DeepSeek’s groundbreaking technology, demystifying the architecture, reasoning, and efficiency—the key factors that set it apart. By understanding these fundamentals, you’ll be equipped to harness, modify, and build upon this technology in your projects.
In short, DeepSeek is not just a tool—it’s the gateway to a future where everyone can contribute to, learn from, and benefit from the best AI innovation. Welcome to the new era of open‑source AI!