OpenAI's Sam Altman announces new 'deep research' tool amid global buzz over DeepSeek

DeepSeek, with its supposed low cost and higher performance, has intensified competition in the AI paradigm and left the West in a frenzy, prompting American firms to initiate further research in the arena.

Sharing details about deep research, Altman posted on X: "Today we launch deep research, our next agent. This is like a superpower; experts on demand!"

"It can go use the internet, do complex research and reasoning, and give you back a report," he said.

"It is really good, and can do tasks that would take hours/days and cost hundreds of dollars," Altman said.

"This version will have something like 10/month in our plus tier and a very small number in our plus tier, but we are working on a more efficient version," he said.

Sam Altman is currently in Japan where he is scheduled to meet PM  Shigeru Ishiba and Masayoshi Son, head of Japanese tech investment behemoth SoftBank Group.

Japanese tech investor SoftBank Group and Open AI aim to build out Japan's artificial intelligence infrastructure, including the construction of AI-oriented data centers and power plants, reported Nikkei Asia.

SoftBank and Open AI will host a gathering of more than 500 Japanese companies in Tokyo on Monday.

They will seek the participation of a wide range of industries -- from transportation and logistics to manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and finance -- with an eye toward tapping into their data troves to develop generative AI for industry, reported Nikkei Asia.

The Stargate Project

Recently OpenAI announced that 'Stargate Project', which will also involve Soft Bank, is a new company which intends to invest $500 billion over the next four years in building new AI infrastructure for OpenAI in the United States.

"The initial equity funders in Stargate are SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX. SoftBank and OpenAI are the lead partners for Stargate, with SoftBank having financial responsibility and OpenAI having operational responsibility. Masayoshi Son will be the chairman," Open AI said in a statement.

What is DeepSeek?

DeepSeek is a Chinese artificial intelligence company which is based in Hangzhou.

Its AI-powered Chatbot has emerged as one of the most downloaded free app on Apple since its release in the USA this month.