DeepSeek in the App Store

Less than a month ago, Chinese AI startup DeepSeek released its chatbot app. Although it’s free, it can compete with powerful models from OpenAI. Now, its iOS app has reached the top spot on the App Store. In this article from Orcacore, we will discuss interesting topics about DeepSeek in the App Store.

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AI app DeepSeek has surpassed ChatGPT to become the most downloaded free app on the App Store.

The chatbot uses the DeepSeek-V3 model, which the developers say is “the number one open-source model and rivals the most advanced closed-source models in the world.” The app has been a huge hit with users since its release in January.

DeepSeek app tops the App Store

AI models like ChatGPT and DeepSeek require advanced chips like Nvidia’s H100 for training. The US government has extended the scope of its export bans on these chips to China since 2021.

Due to the sanctions, China cannot have the H100 and imports the H800, which has a lower data transfer rate. DeepSeek researchers also say they used Nvidia’s H800 chips to train the DeepSeek-V3 model, and its cost is less than $6 million.

Despite the hardware limitations of the DeepSeek startup, its app has managed to surpass ChatGPT in the App Store. This has worried major American companies and caused futures trading in the US stock index to fall. On the other hand, the news of DeepSeek’s lead in the App Store has increased the shares of Chinese technology companies related to DeepSeek, such as Iflytek.

The strange thing is that despite having less financial resources and hardware, DeepSeek also unveiled the open-source R1 model a few days ago, which was able to beat OpenAI’s o1 reasoning model in some benchmarks. The costs of this model are also 95% cheaper than the OpenAI model.

Now it remains to be seen what approach American companies will take to counter this Chinese startup and whether they will change the pricing of their models.

DeepSeek removed from App Store in Italy

The Italian data protection authority has blocked DeepSeek in the app store due to a lack of information about its use of personal data.

DeepSeek last week launched a free AI assistant that it claims uses less data and costs much less than its competitors. The app had overtaken ChatGPT in the Apple App Store by Monday, causing concern among investors in the tech stock market.

DeepSeek removed from App Store in Italy

Pasquale Stanzione, head of the Italian data protection authority, said: “The news of the removal of the app was published a few hours ago, but I cannot say whether this action was the result of our investigation or not.” He added: “The authority will launch an in-depth investigation to check whether DeepSeek complies with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).”

The Italian watchdog, Garante, said it would investigate what personal data is collected from users, where it comes from, for what purposes it is used, on what legal basis it is processed and whether it is stored in China.