DeepSeek R1’s promise and peril for news

In less than a week, DeepSeek R1, a new AI model from Chinese company DeepSeek, shot to the top of the app stores and rattled Wall Street. Why? This open-source AI tool rivals, and in some areas surpasses, industry leader OpenAI’s capabilities — and at a fraction of the cost. DeepSeek claims it spent less than an estimated $6 million over two months to develop R1.

Two key innovations set DeepSeek R1 apart:

• Advanced Reinforcement Learning: Unlike other models that rely on human feedback for refinement, DeepSeek R1 uses a technique called “reinforcement learning” without human input. This allows the model to make decisions and achieve goals more independently.
• Efficient Distillation: DeepSeek employs an advanced distillation technique, enabling smaller models to extract information from larger ones while using less memory and computing power. This contributes significantly to its cost-effectiveness and rapid development.

Click here to read more.