Chinese startup DeepSeek has released its largest AI model to date, a 685-billion-parameter model that industry observers say could intensify competition with US players. The model, called DeepSeek V3.1, was made available on the open-source platform Hugging Face this week with little publicity. Despite the quiet rollout, early benchmark results reportedly suggest the model performs on par with proprietary offerings from OpenAI and Anthropic.
Open-source technologies have great potential to help government increase productivity, support decision-making, and deliver better public services. These fellowships will offer an innovative way to match AI experts with the real world challenges our public services are facing.
Chinese firms like RedNote are deploying open-source LLMs not just as models but as instruments of ecosystem control and geopolitical leverage. Meanwhile, Western firms remain committed to proprietary architectures.
Countries must ensure they are not impeding open source platforms, as Yann LeCun advocates for collaborative international regulation of open-source AI.