Software engineers have bought the website “OGOpenAI.com” and turned it over to DeepSeek, a Chinese AI lab that has been making waves in the open source AI world lately. Software engineer Ananay Arora told TechCrunch that he bought domain names for “less than a Chipotle meal,” and that he would sell them for more. The move is a clear nod to how DeepSeek is releasing a cutting-edge open AI model, just as OpenAI did in its early years. The DeepSeek model can be used offline and for free by any developer with the necessary hardware, similar to older OpenAI models like Point-E and Jukebox. DeepSeek caught the attention of AI enthusiasts last week when it released an open version of its DeepSeek-R1 model, which the company claims outperforms OpenAI’s o1 in certain benchmarks. Outside of models such as Whisper, OpenAI rarely releases flagship AI in its current “open” format, drawing criticism from some in the AI industry. In fact, OpenAI’s reticence to release its most powerful model was cited in a lawsuit from Elon Musk, who claimed that the startup did not stay true to its original non-profit mission. Arora said he was inspired by a now-deleted post on X from Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas comparing DeepSeek to OpenAI in its more “open” days. “I thought, hey, it will be cool to have it [the] domain to DeepSeek for fun,” Arora told TechCrunch via DM. DeepSeek joins Alibaba’s Qwen in the list of Chinese AI labs releasing open alternatives to the OpenAI model. The American government has been trying to block Chinese AI labs for years with chip export restrictions , but may need to do more if the latest AI models coming out of the country are any indication.
