Chinese startup DeepSeek said it is suspending the ability for users to top up API credits to avoid a «wider impact» on its services. The company added that this will not affect any existing account credits.
Chinese startup DeepSeek said it is suspending the ability for users to top up API credits to avoid a «wider impact» on its services. The company added that this will not affect any existing account credits.
«The existing top-up amount can be used in the future, please be understanding!» the company said.
As Bloomberg notes, demand for DeepSeek’s services has been high since late January after the company unveiled an artificial intelligence chatbot that it said could compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and which was developed for a very small amount of money — just $5.576 million. However, analytics firm SemiAnalysis estimated that DeepSeek’s true costs were well over $1 billion.
Previously, the company restricted new user registration, allowing it only to those with a phone number in mainland China.
While the hype surrounding the Chinese company’s latest AI model has sent U.S. and European tech stocks tumbling by $1 trillion, it has also prompted the U.S. to close a loophole in its restrictions on the sale of chips used in AI development. U.S. officials are now investigating whether DeepSeek purchased Nvidia Corp. semiconductors through third parties in Singapore to circumvent restrictions on exporting AI chips to China.
The US is currently planning to introduce legislation that would ban the use of the DeepSeek chatbot on government devices due to new security concerns that the app could provide user information to the Chinese government. Similar moves previously led to a complete ban on TikTok in the US.
DeepSeek, whose low prices have alarmed some competitors, also said that discounts on access to its model will end on February 8. After that, access to the chatbot will cost 2 yuan per million input tokens and 8 yuan per million output tokens. When the reasoning model goes live, the fee will be 4 yuan per million input tokens and 16 yuan per million output tokens.
In late January, programmer and AI insider Tibor Blacho, who has previously reported on a number of major AI innovations, announced changes to the cost of using ChatGPT Plus amid the growing popularity of Chinese AI service SeepSeek. And Microsoft decided to make OpenAI’s o1 model free for all Copilot users.
