Partnership to counter growing popularity of DeepSeek
Life
Sam Altman, OpenAI. Image: Getty via Future
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has signed an agreement with South Korean tech giant Kakao amid increased competition in the AI sector evidenced by the meteoric rise of DeepSeek. The partnership allows Kakao to use ChatGPT technology in its growing range of artificial intelligence services. This partnership solidifies Kakao’s position as a key player in OpenAI’s global network of partners.
OpenAI’s efforts are part of a larger initiative known as Stargate, spearheaded by US President Donald Trump, with the goal of investing up to $500 billion in AI infrastructure in the United States. However, the emergence of DeepSeek, a relatively new AI player from China, has disrupted the landscape and attracted much attention in Silicon Valley. Some industry experts see DeepSeek’s high performance and reportedly lower development costs as a challenge for US developers, calling it a wake-up call for innovation.
Altman expressed enthusiasm for integrating OpenAI’s technology into Kakao’s services, with the goal of improving user experiences and communication on their platforms. In addition to the partnership with Kakao, Altman also had meetings with key South Korean chip manufacturers, Samsung and SK hynix. These meetings focused on exploring collaboration on AI memory chips, such as high-bandwidth memory (HBM), and the development of AI services.
DeepSeek’s impressive performance has fueled speculation that DeepSeek may have used leading US technology, including the AI behind ChatGPT. OpenAI claims rivals are using a technique called ‘distillation,’ in which developers learn from smaller AI models by mimicking the behaviour and decision-making patterns of larger models.
Business AM
