A software engineer has purchased the website “OGOpenAI.com” and redirected it to DeepSeek, a Chinese AI lab that has been gaining attention in the open source AI community.
Software engineer Ananay Arora told TechCrunch that he acquired the domain name for a price less than a Chipotle meal and intends to sell it for a profit.
The decision was likely influenced by DeepSeek’s release of advanced open AI models, reminiscent of OpenAI’s early years. DeepSeek offers models that can be used offline and free of charge by developers with the necessary hardware, similar to older OpenAI models like Point-E and Jukebox.
DeepSeek made headlines when it unveiled an open version of its DeepSeek-R1 model, claiming superior performance compared to OpenAI’s o1 in specific benchmarks. While OpenAI has received criticism for withholding its most powerful models, DeepSeek’s more open approach has been praised within the AI industry.
Arora was inspired by a now-deleted post on X by Perplexity’s CEO, Aravind Srinivas, drawing parallels between DeepSeek and OpenAI during its early days. “I thought it would be fun to redirect the domain to DeepSeek,” Arora shared with TechCrunch via DM.
DeepSeek now stands alongside Alibaba’s Qwen as Chinese AI labs offering open alternatives to OpenAI’s models.
Despite efforts by the American government to restrict chip exports to Chinese AI labs, the emergence of advanced AI models from the country suggests more actions may be necessary.
