DeepSeek released an open-source artificial intelligence model in December, saying it took only two months and less than $6 million to create it.

Japanese technology shares fell on Tuesday as a global market rout sparked by the emergence of a low-cost Chinese artificial intelligence model entered day two, with investors questioning the sky-high valuation and dominance of AI bellwethers.

Chinese AI assistant DeepSeek has become the top rated free app on Apple's App Store in the US and elsewhere, beating out ChatGPT and other rivals.

The DeepSeek chatbot, known as R1, responds to user queries just like its U.S.-based counterparts. Early testing released by DeepSeek suggests that its quality rivals that of other AI products, while the company says it costs less and uses far fewer specialized chips than do its competitors.

The chatbot from China appears to perform a number of tasks as well as its American competitors do, but it censors topics such as Tiananmen Square.

DeepSeek AI, favored by investors over ChatGPT, uses rapid advancements with cheaper chips as U.S. tech restrictions fuel China’s AI innovation.

A Chinese artificial-intelligence company has Silicon Valley raving, calling it "amazing and impressive,"despite working with less-advanced chips.

Chinese tech startup DeepSeek said it was hit by a cyber attack on Monday that disrupted users’ ability to register on the site

(Reuters) -Chinese startup DeepSeek said on Monday it will temporarily limit registrations due to a cyberattack after the company's AI assistant amassed sudden popularity. The startup earlier in the day was also hit by outages on its website after its AI assistant became the top-rated free application available on Apple's App Store in the United States.

DeepSeek on Monday said it would temporarily limit user registrations “due to large-scale malicious attacks” on its services, though existing users will be able to log in as usual.