Chinese AI startup DeepSeek announced on Monday that it is temporarily limiting new user registrations following a cyberattack that disrupted its services. The attack comes as the company’s AI assistant has gained massive popularity, becoming the top-rated free app on Apple’s App Store in the United States.
The cyberattack caused significant outages on DeepSeek’s website and application programming interface (API), leaving users unable to log in. According to the company’s status page, the disruptions were the longest in the past 90 days.
DeepSeek confirmed it has resolved the technical issues and restored functionality but warned that user registrations would be restricted for the time being.
DeepSeek’s recent rise to fame is powered by its DeepSeek-V3 model, which the company claims is both cost-efficient and competitive with the most advanced AI models globally. The AI assistant, launched on January 10, has quickly gained traction, particularly among US users.
The appeal of DeepSeek lies in its ability to deliver high-level performance while using less data and costing a fraction of what competitors like ChatGPT require. This affordability has drawn widespread attention and positioned the startup as a disruptor in the AI industry.
DeepSeek’s growing success is challenging the notion of US supremacy in artificial intelligence. Silicon Valley executives have praised the model’s performance, with some even questioning the effectiveness of US export controls on advanced technology.
Since 2021, the Biden administration has expanded bans on exporting high-performance chips to China to limit the development of Chinese AI models. Despite these restrictions, DeepSeek’s researchers claim their model was trained using Nvidia’s H800 chips, a lower-power alternative to the most advanced chips, at a cost of under $6 million.
Though some dispute the accuracy of these claims, they’ve raised questions about whether such controls are achieving their intended goal.
What is DeepSeek?
Founded in 2023, DeepSeek is based in Hangzhou and is relatively unknown compared to larger Chinese tech companies like Baidu. However, its rapid rise has made it the first Chinese AI company to receive significant praise from US tech leaders, who have described its performance as on par with, or even better than, cutting-edge US models.