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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Technology
Robert Booth and Dan Milmo

Was this the week DeepSeek started the slow unwinding of the AI bet?

Welcom,e screen on a compute saying
The biggest week for AI since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022. Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters

At 2.16pm California time last Sunday, the US billionaire tech investor Marc Andreessen called it. “DeepSeek R1 is AI’s Sputnik moment,” he posted on X.

A Chinese startup, operating since 2023 and helmed by a millennial mathematician, had unveiled a new chatbot that seemed to equal the performance of America’s leading models at a fraction of the cost.

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