The AI Assistant from Chinese firm DeepSeek surpassed competitor ChatGPT on Monday to take the top spot among the free apps on the US Apple App Store.
TakeAway Points:
- Chinese startup DeepSeek’s AI Assistant on Monday overtook rival ChatGPT to become the top-rated free application available on Apple’s App Store in the United States.
- Amazon’s Prime Video has redirected its strategic focus from original television series and films to live sports in an effort to reach internal corporate profit targets.
DeepSeek’s AI becomes first on App store
Powered by the DeepSeek-V3 model, which its creators say “tops the leaderboard among open-source models and rivals the most advanced closed-source models globally,” the artificial intelligence application has surged in popularity among U.S. users since it was released on Jan. 10, according to app data research firm Sensor Tower.
The milestone highlights how DeepSeek has left a deep impression on Silicon Valley, upending widely held views about U.S. primacy in AI and the effectiveness of Washington’s export controls targeting China’s advanced chip and AI capabilities.
AI models from ChatGPT to DeepSeek require advanced chips to power their training. The Biden administration has since 2021 widened the scope of bans designed to stop these chips from being exported to China and used to train Chinese firms’ AI models.
However, DeepSeek researchers wrote in a paper last month that the DeepSeek-V3 used Nvidia’s H800 chips for training, spending less than $6 million.
Although this detail has since been disputed, the claim that the chips used were less powerful than the most advanced Nvidia products Washington has sought to keep out of China, as well as the relatively cheap training costs has prompted U.S. tech executives to question the effectiveness of tech export controls.
Little is known about the company behind DeepSeek, a small Hangzhou-based startup founded in 2023, when search engine giant Baidu released the first Chinese AI large-language model.
Since then, dozens of Chinese tech companies large and small have released their own AI models, but DeepSeek is the first to be praised by the U.S. tech industry as matching or even surpassing the performance of cutting-edge U.S. models.
Amazon Prime Video shifts focus to live sports
Amazon’s Prime Video has shifted its strategic focus towards live sports and away from original television shows and movies, seeking to meet internal corporate profit targets, The Information reported on Friday.
Amazon’s reported move marks a pivotal moment for the tech giant as it looks beyond its traditional focus on original content for generating revenue.
Live sports events, with their real-time viewership, offer valuable opportunities for targeted ad placements and have encouraged streaming companies to secure more live content deals to boost ad revenues.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy aims to make Prime Video profitable by the end of 2025, and this shift is part of the strategy to achieve that goal, according to the report, citing two sources familiar with the company’s plans.
Amazon has invested heavily in sports content, spending about $3 billion annually for broadcasting rights to major leagues such as the NBA and NFL, the report said.
In July, Amazon, along with Walt Disney’ ESPN and Comcast-owned NBCUniversal signed the rights to carry NBA games in an 11-year deal valued at $77 billion. Amazon also began placing ads within its Prime Video platform last year.
Prime’s biggest rival, Netflix, has also made a strong push into live sports with deals for Christmas Day NFL games, a high-profile boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson, and live WWE RAW events.
After a 2022 planning meeting, Amazon’s entertainment team has been commissioning fewer film and TV projects, according to the report, which cited eight producers with ongoing or recent projects with the company.
For 2024, Amazon’s annual budget for original and licensed movies, TV shows, and live sports was around $7 billion, according to the report.
