DeepSec Pressures OpenAI to Rethink Strategy

The competition in the field of artificial intelligence or AI technology is getting fiercer day by day. The field of AI has become more lively after Chinese AI lab DeepSec recently brought its open-source or open AI model ‘R1’ (R One). Now, ChatGPT maker OpenAI has started thinking about open-source or open AI technology. This was recently said by OpenAI’s co-founder and CEO Sam Altman.

 

 

Altman thinks OpenAI should consider open-sourcing some of its AI technology. In response to a question from a participant at Reddit Friday’s “Ask Me Anything” session yesterday, he said his company should move forward with a different open-source strategy instead of a proprietary model.

Not only that, he also said that many of OpenAI’s employees have already started discussing among themselves the possibility of opening up some of their technology. However, he said that this is not what everyone thinks, and it is not a top priority for his organization.

It is worth noting that DeepSec’s R1 model is much more affordable than OpenAI’s various models in terms of production and usage. While their GPT-04 model cost about $100 million to build, the R1 model cost only $5.6 million to build. However, in terms of performance, R1 is almost on par with conventional advanced AI models. Naturally, DeepSec’s chatbot has quickly become popular in the technology world.

A notable aspect of DeepSec is that it is open-source, meaning anyone can customize it as needed, absolutely free. Almost all of the currently available major AI platforms are proprietary models. The only exception to this is the Llama AI models created by Meta, which are partially open. That is, although the Llama models are open under a specific license, there are some restrictions on their use.

When OpenAI launched as a non-profit organization in 2015, it said it would release its research and data into the public domain for the benefit of the general public. After OpenAI released its chatbot ChatGPT in November 2022, it quickly became popular. With the influence of ChatGPT, the use of various tools and features based on generative AI continued to increase, and now almost all of the top technology companies have investments in the AI ​​sector. In this context, they are on the path to raising even larger amounts of investment to accelerate their AI research activities.

As a result, the once non-profit organization OpenAI began to adopt the structure of a for-profit organization in order to attract larger investments. Naturally, they began to keep their AI research proprietary, moving away from the “open-source” commitment of 2015. Elon Musk, one of the founders of OpenAI, recently accused CEO Sam Altman of betraying the organization’s original mission.

OpenAI has cited two reasons for not going the open-source route: increasing competitive pressure in the AI ​​market, as well as the potential for security risks associated with releasing details of AI research into the public domain.

After the arrival of DeepSec’s open-source AI model, top AI research institutions like OpenAI have been forced to take action. Especially since the cost of building and using DeepSec AI is so low compared to other AI models, this Chinese AI lab has shaken up the conventional system of the AI ​​world.