China’s DeepSeek has released preview versions of two new chatbot models, DeepSeek-V4-Pro and DeepSeek-V4-Flash, as the Chinese startup seeks to reinforce its position in the global artificial intelligence race and press its claim that it can compete closely with leading US rivals including OpenAI and Google.
New Models Aim to Narrow Gap With US Leaders
Both V4-Pro and V4-Flash follow DeepSeek’s open-source approach, allowing developers to use and modify the source code. DeepSeek said V4-Pro outperforms all rival open models in mathematics and coding, while trailing only Google’s Gemini 3.1-Pro, a closed model, in world knowledge.
The company also said the performance of the pro version falls only marginally short of OpenAI’s GPT-5.4 and Gemini 3.1-Pro, which it described as suggesting a developmental trajectory that lags frontier models by roughly three to six months. DeepSeek said the flash model offers reasoning abilities similar to the pro version, while promising faster response times and more cost-effective usage pricing.
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DeepSeek’s Rise Reshaped AI Debate
The release follows the earlier arrival of DeepSeek-R1, which startled the technology sector when it launched in January last year with capabilities broadly comparable to ChatGPT and Gemini. Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen is cited as having described that launch at the time as AI’s Sputnik moment.
The model drew particular attention because its developers claimed to have spent less than $6 million on computing costs, a figure presented as a small fraction of the multibillion-dollar budgets typical in Silicon Valley. Some analysts disputed that account and argued the startup likely had access to greater funding and more advanced chips than it publicly acknowledged.
Open Source Push Meets Global Scrutiny
DeepSeek’s expansion has also drawn international concern over privacy, censorship and national security. Multiple US states, along with Australia, Taiwan, South Korea, Denmark and Italy, introduced bans or other restrictions on DeepSeek-R1 soon after its release.
Artificial intelligence has become a central arena in the broader contest for technological supremacy between the United States and China. Citing the Stanford AI Index 2026, Chinese companies have effectively closed the AI performance gap with US rivals, even though Silicon Valley still holds a slight lead in developing the most advanced models. The same index is cited as saying that while the US produces more top-tier AI models and higher-impact patents, China leads in publication volume, citations, patent output and industrial robot installations.
About the author – Rehan Khan is a law student and legal journalist with a keen interest in cybercrime, digital fraud, and emerging technology laws. He writes on the intersection of law, cybersecurity, and online safety, focusing on developments that impact individuals and institutions in India.
