DeepSeek’s first reasoning model R1-Lite-Preview turns heads, beating OpenAI o1 performance

DeepSeek, an AI offshoot of Chinese quantitative hedge fund High-Flyer Capital Management focused on releasing high-performance open-source tech, has unveiled the R1-Lite-Preview, its latest reasoning-focused large language model (LLM), available for now exclusively through DeepSeek Chat, its web-based AI chatbot.

Known for its innovative contributions to the open-source AI ecosystem, DeepSeek’s new release aims to bring high-level reasoning capabilities to the public while maintaining its commitment to accessible and transparent AI.

And the R1-Lite-Preview, despite only being available through the chat application for now, is already turning heads by offering performance nearing and in some cases exceeding OpenAI’s vaunted o1-preview model.

Like that model released in Sept. 2024, DeepSeek-R1-Lite-Preview exhibits “chain-of-thought” reasoning, showing the user the different chains or trains of “thought” it goes down to respond to their queries and inputs, documenting the process by explaining what it is doing and why ...