DeepSeek vs. ChatGPT: The AI Rivalry Silicon Valley Didn’t See Coming

The end of January was full of events that shook the world: the inauguration of US President Donald Trump, the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, and the launch of a new ChatGPT competitor, DeepSeek—the latter has already had an impact on financial markets, as shares of many companies fell in price amid its launch. However, we’re left with a crucial question: is the new chatbot really revolutionary and better than its more expensive competitors? Let's have a closer look.

DeepSeek's Entry into the Arena: Is There Room for a New Player?

Before we consider the advantages and disadvantages of the chatbots being discussed, it is worth understanding what they are.

DeepSeek is a Chinese artificial intelligence company founded in 2023 by Liang Wenfeng, co-founder of High-Flyer Capital Management. Their language AI has already attracted worldwide attention, claiming to be a powerful alternative to ChatGPT. With the release of its flagship model DeepSeek-R1, which is believed to be more powerful than GPT-4o, the company has challenged the monopoly of OpenAI and Google Gemini.

DeepSeek focuses on deep contextual understanding and improved information analysis capabilities, which allows it to be used for more complex tasks. At the same time, according to the company's founder, the cost of training the model was only $6 million, which is ten times less than the cost of OpenAI's ChatGPT in 2023.

On January 10, 2025, the company launched a free chatbot for iOS and Android, which became the most downloaded free app in the US App Store in two weeks, affecting the stock market as well - Nvidia shares fell by 18%.

The new tool has already been praised by leading artificial intelligence researchers. Javier Aguirre, an AI researcher at Samsung Medical Centre, shared his experience on LinkedIn:

‘Today I had a really tricky and complex problem. Even ChatGPT o1 was not able to reason enough to solve it. I gave DeepSeek a try, and it solved it at once and straight to the point.’

At the same time, OpenAI's ChatGPT, launched in 2022, has already established itself as one of the most effective AI tools, capable of performing a wide range of tasks, from text generation to complex data analysis. The company is constantly improving its models by adding new features, including Deep Research, a tool that can conduct basic research on its own.

ChatGPT's popularity is largely due to its user-friendly interface, accessibility, and adaptability. It easily handles various tasks, which has made it a favorite among writers, students, professionals, and amateurs who integrate artificial intelligence to optimize their work.

This trend is also touted by PR and communications specialists. For example, in an interview with Samira Abdulova, Head of Global Communications and Partnership at WhiteBIT, the expert emphasized that AI is one of the key trends in PR and communications.

‘Artificial intelligence allows us to efficiently process large amounts of data, create content and tailor communications to the needs of a specific audience.’ the expert notes.

While both models are powerful AI systems, they are designed for different purposes. DeepSeek is more focused on enterprises and specific industries where accuracy and analytics are important. ChatGPT, on the other hand, is a flexible and versatile tool that is suitable for both the creative process and everyday tasks.

Comparative Analysis: Key Advantages and Disadvantages

Both platforms are capable of performing a huge number of tasks, but what are their key advantages and disadvantages? Over the past week, I have been researching both platforms in detail, taking into account several key criteria. Comparing my observations with those of other experts, I came to the following conclusions:

However, privacy remains a key issue. OpenAI and Google claim to comply with GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) standards, while DeepSeek's privacy policy provides for the storage of collected data on secure servers in China. This raised concerns in the US and EU about the Chinese government's possible access to the information. The reaction was not long in coming: On 29 January, the Italian Data Protection Authority (Garante) officially requested detailed information from DeepSeek about the types and sources of data collection, their purposes, legal grounds, and storage locations. The company has 20 days to respond.

AI in Crypto Investments: Who is More Effective? Analysing Real-World Use Cases

Trading bots based on artificial intelligence are becoming increasingly popular among crypto investors. This is quite logical: automated tools allow you to optimize trading, making it more efficient and potentially more profitable. They analyze the market, make automatic trades, and minimize risks. But which artificial intelligence model is best suited for this purpose?

Therefore, when the popularity of DeepSeek began to grow, they decided to test the tool in various areas, including the crypto industry. One of the most interesting cases was presented by an investor named Nonzee. On January 28, he shared his experience of using a trading bot based on DeepSeek, which managed to turn 0.1 SOL into 52 SOL (~$12.4 thousand) in 5 days. He chose the Pump.fun platform and was satisfied with the result.  On the social network X, he explained in detail how to set up and use this bot, emphasizing that no programming skills are required. According to him, with the help of DeepSeek, he managed to create a database of 500,000 tokens on Pump.fun. The system allows him to analyse risks, find patterns, and make transactions with high profitability.

Another case was presented by Money Tent, an investor who tested ChatGPT's capabilities for this purpose. On February 27, 2024, he decided to find out whether the chatbot could create an effective trading strategy and a bot to manage $100,000. He described the test results in his blog on Medium. However, unlike DeepSeek, ChatGPT's approach was not as successful: Money Tent noted the lack of proper risk management and an extremely low percentage of profitable transactions. He stressed that without significant refinement, this strategy cannot yet provide stable results, as losses exceed profits.

To summarise,

The choice between DeepSeek and ChatGPT depends on your needs.

If you need a tool for complex analysis, deep contextual understanding, or working in a business environment, DeepSeek may be the best option. It demonstrates high efficiency in solving technical and analytical tasks, as well as in trading.

However, if you are looking for a universal assistant for creative tasks, training, automation of daily work, or communication, ChatGPT remains a reliable choice. Its stability, integration with other services, and wide user base make it a convenient solution for mass use.

In my opinion, the conclusion is as follows: DeepSeek is about accuracy and analytics, ChatGPT is about versatility and convenience. The choice is yours.