Sam Altman acknowledged that DeepSeek is a formidable competitor and believes their emergence is a "spirited boost" for OpenAI.
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On social media platform X on January 28, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman expressed his impression of DeepSeek R1 - the new AI model from the company DeepSeek based in Hangzhou, China. In his post, Altman called it an "impressive model, especially in terms of what they can achieve at an affordable price."
The creator of ChatGPT acknowledges that DeepSeek is a formidable competitor and believes their emergence is a "spirited boost" for OpenAI. This will prompt OpenAI to accelerate the launch of upcoming products.
"We are certainly going to bring forth models that are far superior, and it is truly exciting to have a new competitor! We will speed up the launch of some upcoming products," quotes the CEO's post.
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As an AI startup from China, DeepSeek has quickly gained global recognition thanks to its AI chatbot. The company claims that DeepSeek R1 is on par with models from American companies like OpenAI's ChatGPT, but is more cost-effective. This product has shaken the global technology market and changed the perception that developing stronger AI always requires more computational power.
Not only has DeepSeek R1 received praise from Sam Altman, but it has also become a new phenomenon on application platforms. Since the beginning of 2025, this chatbot has appeared on Apple's App Store and Google Play, quickly becoming the most downloaded free app on iPhone.
However, Altman countered that the future development of AI will not be able to reduce costs as easily. The OpenAI team believes that "computational resources are now more important than ever to succeed with our mission."
In addition, the CEO revealed that OpenAI is making significant strides in the journey towards general artificial intelligence (AGI). "The world will want to use a lot of AI and will be amazed by the next generations of models to be launched," he wrote.
According to Bloomberg, the emergence and rapid success of DeepSeek has put significant pressure on OpenAI and its partners. In Japan, shares of SoftBank - OpenAI's strategic partner - fell by 4.7% on the morning of January 28. SoftBank is currently collaborating with OpenAI on a $100 billion project to build infrastructure supporting OpenAI in the United States.
However, just after shaking the global AI industry, DeepSeek was hit by a large-scale cyber attack on the evening of January 27. The company had to limit new user registrations while trying to control the aftermath. DeepSeek confirmed the attack and stated that they are taking preventive steps to minimize potential losses.
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