Is DeepSeek Open Source? The AI Industry Revolution

DeepSeek indicates in published information that it is an open-source AI platform. However, since DeepSeek has not released its training code, there is a heated debate about whether DeepSeek is truly open-source.

In this post, we’ll explore DeepSeek’s open-source model, why it’s open-source, its advantages over its competitors, and the exciting benefits it offers. If you’re interested in this topic, this post is worth reading.

Is DeepSeek Open Source?

Yes, DeepSeek-R1 is an open-source model developed by the Hangzhou-based DeekSeek company. It drastically reduces the cost for businesses to use generative AI with no loss in performance compared to established market leaders like OpenAI. 

Although questions have been raised about whether DeepSeek is an open-source platform because it doesn’t fully publish its training models, this is not an isolated case in the industry.

Since Meta’s release of Llama 2, it’s been the industry norm to publish model weights that don’t include training code. And companies like Google and Alibaba use similar policies. But what exactly is open-source AI? And why is it so important?

What Is Open-Source AI?

Open-source AI is an AI system that can be freely used, studied, modified, and shared. The open-source model provides broad access to new AI technologies, allowing individuals and organizations of all sizes to participate in AI research and development without relying on proprietary restrictions. This approach fosters human collaboration and shared progress in AI.

In contrast to open-source AI, closed-source AI restricts access to source code and internal components. It is proprietary and only the company or organization that owns it can modify or distribute the system. While open-source AI emphasizes external contributions and transparency, closed-source AI places more emphasis on the protection and control of intellectual property.

Open-source AI can promote beneficial innovation in the system more quickly. However, the risks of open-source AI increase as a result, and some bad actors may arbitrarily remove security protocols from public models.

Why Is DeepSeek Open Source?

Like closed-source AI, DeepSeek could have kept its source code completely undisclosed. There are several reasons to consider why DeepSeek is open source:

Enhance transparency: An open-source AI model promotes transparency, collaboration, and innovation in AI research and development. Moreover, it allows independent researchers to audit the technology, ensuring security and fairness.

Promote collaboration: DeepSeek allows developers worldwide to contribute to improving its model and optimizing its performance.

Enhancing competitiveness: The appearance of DeepSeek challenges proprietary AI solutions from big tech companies. Open-sourcing DeepSeek will enable more people to get involved in the AI industry, bring more attention to DeepSeek, and in turn break the monopoly of the large tech companies that own the technology.

Access to AI popularization: The price of AI models commonly used by people nowadays is not friendly to some small businesses, startups, and individual developers. DeepSeek is free and open source that can give more people access to cutting-edge technology without costly license fees.

Accelerated innovation: Researchers and developers can build upon existing models rather than starting from scratch.

Geopolitical and compliance recognition: Since DeepSeek is a Chinese company, data management laws in China are different from those in the United States. This may have raised concerns among users as well as companies feeling uneasy about working with them. The open-source model builds trust immediately.

Especially due to data privacy and security concerns, DeepSeek has been restricted in some countries and regions, including Taiwan, the United States, Italy, South Korea, and Australia.

How Does DeepSeek Open-Source AI Affect the Industry?

DeepSeek has now surpassed ChatGPT as the most downloaded free app on the U.S. Apple App Store. Its rapid rise is fueling the growth of the AI industry.

DeepSeek can promote the democratization of AI by enabling small companies, startups, and individual developers to build on DeepSeek-R1. More people participating in the AI industry can also accelerate the development of innovation in technologically backward regions and drive technological progress.

Developers no longer have to stick to building basic models and have more energy to devote to future technologies. The power of AI can be widely used to solve realistic problems. People can also query training data, and open-source AI models are more likely to gain user trust later.

At the same time, the AI industry has been prompted to rethink competitiveness thanks to the DeepSeek hit, which in turn has energized the entire industry. Open-source AI policy can be improved, and policymakers will consider regulations that balance openness and responsible AI management.

Overall, DeepSeek’s open-source model has changed the rules for parts of the AI industry, promoting transparency, collaboration, and accessibility.

Advantages of DeepSeek’s Open-Source Model

The popularity of DeepSeek’s open-source model brings several advantages:

Transparency: Increase user trust by making source code available for review.

Collaboration: Developers around the world can contribute to DeepSeek projects to accelerate innovation and improvement.

Cost savings: By leveraging the open-source community, DeepSeek can reduce development costs and pass the savings on to users.

Increased security and reliability: If your DeepSeek cannot work normally, the security vulnerabilities can be detected and fixed quickly. Open-source models benefit from collective scrutiny and improvements.

Related: How to Fix DeepSeek Not Working – 12 Methods

Conclusion

In summary, DeepSeek combines advanced reasoning capabilities with an open-source framework that differs from traditional AI language models. Additionally, its transparency enhances the credibility of the content answered.

Secondly, whether you are a personal or commercial user, DeepSeek provides you with efficient computation. If you are interested in DeepSeek’s open-source model, you can visit the official website to download and use it.