DeepSeek V4 Rivals Frontier Models at Fraction of Cost

Chinese AI lab DeepSeek has released preview versions of DeepSeek V4 Flash and V4 Pro, its largest open-weight models to date. The Pro model boasts 1.6 trillion parameters and claims near-parity with leading AI models on reasoning benchmarks, while undercutting rivals like GPT-5.4 and Gemini 3.1 Pro on price. However, the models trail frontier competitors in knowledge tests by an estimated 3 to 6 months and support text only, lacking audio, video, and image capabilities. The launch follows U.S. accusations that China stole American AI intellectual property, with DeepSeek itself facing allegations of copying models from Anthropic and OpenAI.