- ChatGPT (GPT-4o by OpenAI) is a closed-source model, meaning its architecture, training data, and algorithms are not publicly available. OpenAI provides API access, but fine-tuning or modifying the model is restricted.
- DeepSeek, on the other hand, is an open large language model, meaning its weights and architecture are available for developers to use, modify, and improve. This openness has led to a rapid adoption within the AI research community, with over 700 models based on DeepSeek emerging on platforms like HuggingFace.
- ChatGPT-4o is trained on cutting-edge hardware and has over 1 trillion parameters, making it one of the most advanced LLMs available. However, training these models costs hundreds of millions of dollars, making them accessible only to tech giants.
- DeepSeek-V3, while slightly smaller with 671 billion parameters, achieves comparable performance to GPT-4o at a fraction of the cost (estimated at $5.6 million). It was trained on Nvidia H800 chips, which are less powerful than the hardware used by OpenAI, yet DeepSeek managed to optimize its performance using innovative techniques like DualPipe parallelism and Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) architectures.
Beyond just generating text, reasoning models are becoming a crucial area of AI development.
- GPT-4o excels at logical reasoning and structured problem-solving, making it a great tool for applications like coding assistance and professional writing.
- DeepSeek-R1, released alongside DeepSeek-V3, is an open reasoning model that uses a hybrid training approach (Supervised Fine-Tuning + Reinforcement Learning). It’s not as powerful as OpenAI’s o1 reasoning model, but it's significantly cheaper to run and open for modification.
- ChatGPT is user-friendly, with an easy-to-use API that powers applications like Copilot, ChatGPT Plus, and enterprise AI solutions. However, it comes with usage costs and API limits.
- DeepSeek’s models can be downloaded for free and run on local machines, even on lower-end hardware. Some distilled versions of DeepSeek-R1 can even run on a Raspberry Pi, making it highly accessible.
