Chinese startup DeepSeek has released a minor update to its R1 AI model, now available on the Hugging Face platform under an open MIT license. According to a statement published on the company’s official WeChat account, the new version remains freely available for commercial use. This move continues DeepSeek’s strategy of promoting openness in AI development.
The Hugging Face repository currently offers limited documentation. It includes only configuration files and the model’s weights—numerical parameters that determine how the AI operates. The updated R1 now contains 685 billion parameters, making it one of the most resource-intensive models currently available. As noted by TechCrunch, such a massive model is unlikely to run on regular consumer hardware without further optimization efforts.
High Performance, High Demands
The R1 model gained significant attention earlier this year when its first version launched, positioning itself as a direct competitor to models from OpenAI. This success, however, also brought scrutiny. Some U.S. regulators have expressed concerns that DeepSeek’s technologies could pose a potential threat to national security due to their advanced capabilities.
Despite these concerns, DeepSeek continues to push forward with its AI development roadmap. The company’s decision to apply the permissive MIT license allows both developers and businesses to test and integrate the model into their own products without legal or financial barriers. However, deploying R1 in practical scenarios will still require substantial computing power, given the model’s scale.
Ongoing Developments and Availability
While the release includes only the essential files for now, more documentation and resources may follow, notes NIXSolutions. We’ll keep you updated as more integrations and details become available. DeepSeek’s commitment to transparency and open access in AI model distribution continues to set it apart in an increasingly competitive field.
As the landscape of generative AI evolves, R1’s presence on platforms like Hugging Face ensures that researchers and enterprises have access to cutting-edge tools—albeit ones that demand robust hardware to function effectively.