Start Your Engines Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re probably aware that AI is developing at a breakneck pace. Early yesterday morning, a gleeful post on X-formerly-Twitter by Chinese AI firm DeepSeek announced a new model called R1 — a “reasoning” AI model which the outfit says is performing “on par” with OpenAI’s o1, a splashy model released last month. And unlike 01, DeepSeek R1 is open source, meaning hobbyists and researchers can tinker with it at home and even release their own versions. The reasoning model is said to narrowly edge out OpenAI’s system in “math, code, and reasoning tasks.” If the claim holds up — a big “if,” since the results haven’t yet been independently verified — it’s an exciting milestone for a much smaller lab in the AI research space, which is currently dominated by deep-pocketed ventures like OpenAI and Apple — and especially for proponents of open source AI development, with DeepSeek taking a dig at the closed-source OpenAI by celebrating its work as pushing the “boundaries of **open AI**!” Open AI Under the open source model, anyone has the legal rights to use, alter, and distribute DeepSeek’s software (household-name open source projects include Mozilla Firefox, VLC Media Player, and Linux.) In theory, it’s the most egalitarian approach to software development. However, not everyone’s convinced that open source AI is the way forward; in an interview on the podcast “Tech Won’t Save Us,” professor of economics at University College London Cecelia Rikap argued that open source…Chinese AI Firm Says Its Open Source New Model Is Beating OpenAI's Most Advanced Publicly Released Model