A new China-based artificial intelligence startup is shaking up an industry known for its rapid

innovation. It's called DeepSeek, and its biggest advantage, analysts say, is that it can

operate at a lower cost than American AI models like ChatGPT. It's already the top download

in the Apple store. Sudden popularity that's disrupting markets, especially the tech-focused

NASDAQ, and it's raising lots of national security questions about China's progress amid a global race to develop

artificial intelligence. Garrett DeVink is a tech reporter for the Washington Post and joins us now. Thanks for being here.

Of course.

So explain for the unfamiliar.

What is DeepSeek, this new Chinese-based AI startup that's the source of such consternation in Silicon Valley?

Yeah.

So, I mean, people are maybe familiar with OpenAI or the maker of ChatGPT.

Maybe they've used other AI tools from other big tech or American

companies to help them write a resume or help them write a wedding speech or maybe even help them

with emails at work, generate images, that kind of thing. DeepSeek is just a small Chinese company

that essentially makes a product very similar to chat

GPT. It's a chat bot that you can have a conversation with. You can ask it to generate all

kinds of writing. You know, you can sort of do research on it. And the big reason why people

are so freaked out about it here in Silicon Valley and I think in political and national

security circles as well is that people have seen

AI as something that's very expensive to do. You need to put a lot of money into it, tens and even

hundreds of millions of dollars, in order to train AI software to be as capable as the leading

AI programs like chat GPT. And according to these Chinese researchers who work at DeepSeek,

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