By Consultants Review Team
DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence chatbot, has become the most downloaded mobile app in 140 markets, with India accounting for the highest number of new users. According to Appfigures data cited by Bloomberg, India accounted for 15.6% of all downloads across platforms since the app's launch in January, and it became the number one Android app on the Google Play Store in the United States this week.
The app rose to the top spot on Apple Inc's App Store on January 26 and has since maintained its position globally, becoming the top-ranked app on Alphabet Inc's Google Play Store in the United States as of January 28.
Within 18 days of its release, DeepSeek had 16 million downloads, nearly doubling OpenAI's ChatGPT's initial launch figure of nine million. The chatbot has gained popularity due to its impressive AI capabilities at a significantly lower cost than its competitors, raising concerns among global technology companies about potential AI market disruptions.
Security concerns regarding Chinese AI
Despite its rapid success, DeepSeek is being scrutinized by governments and corporations for cybersecurity risks, Bloomberg reported earlier this week. According to cybersecurity firms, hundreds of companies and government agencies have blocked the AI assistant due to data privacy concerns and potential security vulnerabilities.
OpenAI seeks additional $40 billion funding
Meanwhile, OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, is reportedly looking for up to $40 billion in new funding, with Japan's SoftBank leading talks to invest between $15 billion and $25 billion. If the deal goes through, SoftBank could become OpenAI's largest financial backer, bringing its total valuation to an estimated $340 billion.The Financial Times reported that SoftBank's total investment in OpenAI could eventually exceed $40 billion.
India's solution: Hosting DeepSeek on local servers
Amid growing concerns about data privacy, India's Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced on Thursday that DeepSeek would soon be hosted on Indian servers. Speaking at the IndiaAI Mission event, Vaishnaw stated that this move aims to improve data security and ensure compliance with Indian regulations.
The minister also revealed that major semiconductor companies are considering collaborating with India to develop indigenous graphics processing units (GPUs). The government, through the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), is actively seeking partnerships to co-develop AI infrastructure and accelerate the country's semiconductor design ecosystem. More announcements about these initiatives are expected in the coming weeks.
India intends to enter the AI race and emerge as a major global player in AI adoption.
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