Gemini, Apple Intelligence, and now, DeepSeek?
DeepSeek, the Chinese AI company known for causing quite a stir in the tech industry with their cost-efficient R1 large language model, is now looking into the smartphone game. Reports have circulated that DeepSeek is already collaborating with several Chinese phone makers.
One of these phone makers is nubia, which has already announced plans to bake DeepSeek’s advanced AI capabilities into their upcoming flagship, the nubia Z70 Ultra. Baking the AI model directly into the phone will provide users with several advantages from the app, including faster response times, enhanced privacy, and offline functionality.
DeepSeek is really taking a guns-blazing approach for their first venture into the smartphone space with a device that sports the best that Android has to offer, namely, a Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset with a 6,150 mAh battery.
Breaking away from Google’s tight grip
Additionally, DeepSeek’s open-source nature gives OEMs the freedom to integrate their home-brewed applications. Unlike Google’s Gemini, which is closely knitted to their ecosystem, leaving OEMs little space to improvise. DeepSeek is also more efficient to run, beating major players like OpenAI and Google, which require a lot of resources.
The more, the merrier?
DeepSeek’s foray into the smartphone space could stiffen the competition between them and Google. This in turn could drive down costs and support more devices. Right now, Gemini Nano supports only a handful of devices, with only realme and Xiaomi making the cut.
Given nubia’s position in the market as a budget-friendly option that doesn’t compromise on quality, we could expect more and more manufacturers to do the same, further making AI features accessible to the masses.