Along came DeepSeek-R1[1] last week, an open-source large language model (LLM) reportedly rivaling OpenAI’s top offerings, sending shockwaves through the industry and generating much excitement in the tech world. It apparently started as a side project at a Chinese hedge fund before being spun out. Its efficacy, combined with claims of being built at a fraction of the cost and hardware requirements, has seriously challenged BigAI’s notion that “foundation models” demand astronomical investments. I have personally been playing around with R1 and have found it to be excellent at writing code. Speaking of foundation models, one rarely hears that term anymore; unsurprising, given that foundation is now commodity. Building a foundation-level LLM was once touted as the cornerstone of AI sovereignty, but that rhetoric has also waned. Much has changed regarding the idea of AI sovereignty.
Originally published on Kailash Nadh's blog ↗
