Qwen 2.5: A Potential Competitor to DeepSeek?

There's a growing number of generative AI large language models, leading to heated competition. Alibaba is the latest AI salvo from China, which is a direct assault at its in-country rival DeepSeek. DeepSeek launched its own AI — DeepSeek-V3 — in December and its R1 version in January. 

The V3 is a foundation AI model that is quite different from other models, such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity, thanks to its unique design, faster application, cost, and much less computing power to train compared to the other systems.

Alibaba's Qwen 2.5 vs DeepSeek 

DeepSeek might have taken US-based AI developers and chip makers by surprise, leading to massive sales and disruptions in the stock market. Even media companies suggest that the introduction of the V3 sparked an AI upgrade by TikTok owner ByteDance and this latest AI launch of Alibaba’s Qwen 2.5. It’s reported that Alibaba specifically called out DeepSeek in a WeChat post, stating that its Qwen 2.5 creation “outperforms” V3.

But is that true? For starters, it's too early to tell which AI model from China will come out on top. Also, there are several concerns about potential risks for both platforms. Issues that plagued China-owned TikTok are being raised regarding Alibaba's Qwen 2.5 and even the DeepSeek-V3. 

Both AI models are said to have questions regarding data security, privacy, potential misreporting of performance stats, and separate issues of possible intellectual property theft on behalf of OpenAI and Microsoft. These fears could call into question whether V3 was trained from scratch or leveraged by other AI models.

Reviews and Acknowledgements: Who's Leading? 

While the Qwen 2.5 rivals DeepSeek on some fronts, the latter has seen more praise and acknowledgments. Sure, there's an ongoing investigation of IP theft and even originality on the training modules used by DeepSeek. However, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, posting on X, said, “Deepseek’s R1 is an impressive model, particularly around what they’re able to deliver for the price. We will deliver much better models and also it’s legit invigorating to have a new competitor! We will pull up some releases.” 

Trump's comment on the issue was more calculated and directed at U.S. AI companies regarding the emergence of strong, inexpensive competitors from China. "The release of DeepSeek AI from a Chinese company should be a wake-up call for our industries that we need to be laser-focused on competing,” he said.

For now, DeepSeek is ruling the roost and ahead of the rest. Until something drastic happens, Alibaba, OpenAI, Google, and the rest will have to play catch up.