What is DeepSeek? China’s AI app rivals U.S.-based tech companies WSOC TV [Video]

For the second time in the last month, a Chinese app has skyrocketed to the top spot in Apple’s App Store.

The first was Xiaohongshu, or RedNote, which saw a sudden surge in downloads by United States users seeking an alternative to TikTok in anticipation of the ban on that app, which had been scheduled to take effect on Jan. 19.

Now it’s DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence company that released a new chatbot model called R1 on Jan. 20. The DeepSeek app has since climbed to the top of the Apple App charts, recording more than 1.6 million downloads since it launched on Jan. 10, according to the market tracker App Figures.

DeepSeek announced Monday that it is temporarily restricting new users from signing up for its services, citing “large-scale malicious attacks.” But prior to that, the Chinese startup and its new chatbot seemed on track to surpass the popularity of U.S.-based AI companies such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Meta’s Llama and Google’s Gemini.

Here’s …