RAG to riches - coding a solution to AI’s privacy problem

One week after DeepSeek released its eponymous AI chatbot in January, it became the most downloaded free app on the iOS App Store in America. That same day, I announced publicly that I would be changing roles — from CEO to Chief Scientist — at Zoho Corporation, the technology company I founded and led for nearly 30 years. DeepSeek's sudden impact could be felt across our entire industry, understood by many tech leaders as a profound disruption. As an engineer first, I viewed DeepSeek's perceived disruption as a pathway toward innovation.

What DeepSeek achieved with its R1 model is a milestone of efficiency, not of capability. DeepSeek's model isn't objectively better or worse than OpenAI's, but it cost $6 million to build, which is $94 million less than ChatGPT. More than just being cost efficient, the R1 model runs on 90% less compute power than Meta's ...