DeepSeek, the Chinese company behind the new AI chatbot R1, uses less computing power and fewer chips than its rivals, and claims the model is far cheaper.

“It’s sort of the biggest news in this space of AI chatbots since November 2022 when ChatGPT came out,” Robert Booth, the Guardian’s UK technology editor, tells Helen Pidd.

“What they seem to have done is that they’ve worked out a way of doing more with less,” Robert explains. “What they’re doing then is activating only the relevant chips when you put your search in, rather than all of them, so it’s answering more efficiently.”

Robert and Helen also discuss concerns over the model’s security and censorship, and why the US AI industry has been shaken by its launch.

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