Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek said on Thursday that its newly released V3.1 model supported both “think” and “non-think” modes, marking the firm’s “first step towards the agent era” – a shift that suggests a change in its research focus and and the possibility it would forgo the highly anticipated R2 reasoning model.
The “think” mode on DeepSeek’s namesake chatbot was previously powered by its R1 reasoning model that garnered global attention after its release in January, following the launch of the V3 foundational model in December.
In contrast, the V3.1 model unveiled on Wednesday adopted a “one model, two modes” approach, indicating that the company may not develop a successor to R1.
The V3.1 model could deliver answers more quickly than R1, which was last updated in May, DeepSeek said on its official X account.
Founded by entrepreneur Liang Wenfeng as a side project of his quantitative trading firm, DeepSeek has spurred a wave of open-source AI adoption in China. The privately held company, however, has not disclosed its development timeline or future plans.
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DeepSeek’s announcement comes as the start-up has been losing users in recent months, as open-source models from larger Chinese tech companies, such as Alibaba Group Holding’s Qwen family, gain traction in the domestic and international AI markets. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
