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How China created AI model DeepSeek and shocked the world

Government policies, generous funding and a pipeline of AI graduates have helped Chinese firms create advanced LLMs.
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  1. Gemma Conroy
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  2. Smriti Mallapaty
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Chinese technology start-up DeepSeek has taken the tech world by storm with the release of two large language models (LLMs) that rival the performance of the dominant tools developed by US tech giants — but built with a fraction of the cost and computing power.

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Nature 638, 300-301 (2025)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-00259-0

Additional reporting by Elizabeth Gibney.

References

  1. Liu, A. et al. Preprint at arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2412.19437 (2024).

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