The Chinese company DeepSeek presented an ambitious project — the open-source neural network DeepSeek V3. The creators confidently stated that their technology is ready to compete with well-known systems such as OpenAI's ChatGPT. A loud statement? Quite. But taking a closer look at this development, you understand that it really has something to surprise!
What kind of neural network is it?
DeepSeek V3 is a next-generation language model, combining scale, speed, and accuracy. What do the numbers "671 billion parameters and 14.8 trillion tokens in the training data set" mean? This is incredible computing power, due to which the model is able to perform the most complex tasks. The developers built DeepSeek V3 using advanced technologies that took it to a new level of performance:
Multi-token Prediction (MTP)
While most models work with text step by step, predicting one word at a time, MTP allows DeepSeek to look further: it analyzes text in fragments, guessing several words at once. This speeds up the process and makes the results more accurate.
Mixture of Experts (MoE)
DeepSeek isn't just one big network — it's made up of 256 "expert modules," each of which is responsible for handling a specific task. Interestingly, only 8 modules work at the same time, and this reduces the load and saves computing resources.
Multi-head Latent Attention (MLA)
This mechanism of attention carefully "combs" the text, highlighting its key points. The result is detailed, balanced answers that eliminate missing important details.
It took only two months to train the model on Nvidia H800 GPUs. The cost of the project is $5.5 million, which is several times less than that of GPT from OpenAI (about $78 million).
Benefits of DeepSeek V3
What is the difference between DeepSeek and its peers? To begin with, the creators of the model claim that in terms of performance, it surpasses OpenAI GPT-4o, Llama 3 from Meta and Claude 3.5 Sonnet from Anthropic. Here are the main benefits:
Huge contextual window
DeepSeek V3 can handle up to 128 thousand tokens, which is about 300 pages of text. Now you don't have to "feed" AI in small fragments — it is ready to work with entire books, complex scientific articles, and reports.
Advanced Programming
DeepSeek doesn't just write code, it also formats, explains, and suggests optimizations. Python, JavaScript, C++ — the model works well with all these languages and can solve complex algorithmic problems.
Working with Visual Data
A unique feature for open models is the ability to analyze images. The model is able to decipher even diagrams and make textual interpretations of them.
Multilingual
DeepSeek has an impressive level of work with different languages — the translation retains all the semantic and stylistic nuances of the original.
The only drawback is the limitation on the analysis of materials by links. Now the model works only with uploaded files or copying texts.
How to get started with DeepSeek V3
DeepSeek offers flexible access to its platform. Users have several options:
- Web platform. Free access opens after registering on the site. This version handles up to 32K tokens per request and supports file uploads up to 100MB.
- Mobile platforms. There are already apps for iOS and Android: they duplicate the functionality of the site and are ideal for working on the go.
- API and local version. If your company needs the power of DeepSeek on an ongoing basis, you can use commercial API options or deploy the model on-premises.
Putting DeepSeek V3 to the test
Testing model capabilities is always exciting. Here are the two challenges we proposed for DeepSeek V3.
Retelling of the book
We downloaded The Little Prince. The result is impressive! The model not only retold the main events, but also highlighted the main themes: the value of friendship, the importance of human relationships, the search for meaning. It did not just give out the text - it was a conscious reflection on the ideas of the work.
Writing code
Task: to write an algorithm to find the minimum number of lines when building a diagram. DeepSeek not only generated the correct Python code, but also explained each line in detail, pointed out possible difficulties, and suggested ways to optimize.
Results: a revolution in the IT world?
DeepSeek V3 is not just a tool, it's a platform-based approach to problem solving. The model is able to create texts, edit code, analyze data, and work with different languages. It has already surprised with its performance, but leaves room for thought: how will the world change if such powerful technologies become publicly available? So far, DeepSeek opens up huge opportunities for developers, researchers, and businesses, but the issues of ethics, privacy, and AI control are becoming more and more relevant.
DeepSeek V3 is the future that is here. As practice shows, this model is clearly worth following.
