On January twentieth, 2025, a Chinese language firm referred to as DeepSeek released a new AI model to the general public. The mannequin is free and, in response to many customers, journalists, and publications, a worthy rival for ChatGPT. However how does it measure up relating to public relations (PR)?
DeepSeek disruption
Earlier than I get into the specifics of how DeepSeek performs relating to particular PR duties, I feel it’s worthwhile to take a look at the temporary historical past of the AI instrument. In these first two weeks since DeepSeek’s debut, the AI app has overtaken ChatGPT on Apple’s app retailer, stunning AI builders and buyers in every single place. It additionally garnered its personal set of main controversies.
Many customers have discovered DeepSeek to be quicker and extra thorough than ChatGPT, though it was reportedly educated at a a lot decrease price. Snowflake’s CEO has called the app a powerful competitor to OpenAI, whereas journalists have noted its speedy, low-cost coaching course of and the choice to launch it as open-source.
Regardless of its success, DeepSeek continues to be in its early days and has confronted vital controversy. OpenAI has accused DeepSeek of plagiarizing ChatGPT, pointing to its strikingly comparable consumer interface. Some experts have additionally raised doubts about its claims of low-cost coaching, questioning whether or not the corporate’s reported efficiencies are as vital as marketed.
Safety issues have added to the scrutiny. A recent data leak uncovered over one million data, main a number of governments to ban the use of DeepSeek’s AI for federal staff. Given the mounting issues over privateness and knowledge safety, some speculate that DeepSeek might face restrictions just like these imposed on TikTok.
Is DeepSeek higher at PR than ChatGPT?
In the meantime, PR professionals stay obsessed with DeepSeek. I’ve seen a variety of constructive feedback on LinkedIn from people who find themselves actively utilizing DeepSeek and are impressed by its capabilities – notably on condition that it’s free. So I made a decision to have a look. Once I sat down to check DeepSeek alongside ChatGPT, I needed to check the 2 apps alongside classes like:
- Timeliness
- Accuracy
- Relevance of outcomes
- Availability of service
- Understanding of PR phrases and duties
- Skill to comply with directions
With this standards in thoughts, I examined each fashions on story ideation, pitch writing, analysis, and disaster communications. As a result of PR depends closely on up-to-date data and the most recent information, I’m evaluating DeepSeek with the $20-per-month model of ChatGPT, which permits for web entry. Nonetheless, since DeepSeek continues to be working by way of early rising pains, I used to be not in a position to check many classes to my satisfaction as a result of its server was virtually continuously too busy to deal with new requests.
Let’s undergo the commonest PR duties one after the other.
Story ideation – ChatGPT wins narrowly
Public relations professionals usually have to generate new concepts to pitch on behalf of their purchasers. Normally, ChatGPT’s concepts are far too generic and evergreen to fulfill well timed PR wants. I assumed the case can be the identical with DeepSeek.
It took me some time to get something helpful from DeepSeek. At current, the mannequin appears to work about 10 % of the time, largely as a result of early-stage instability attributable to distributed denial-of-service cyberattacks and the sheer quantity of recent customers. If these points are resolved, its reliability might enhance. However presently, DeepSeek is never obtainable, which makes it troublesome to make use of for ideation.
I observed that DeepSeek typically conducts web searches in Chinese language, which might have an effect on its outcomes. Once I requested ChatGPT about one in all my purchasers and requested industry-related concepts, it supplied a wealth of related data, full with sources. In distinction, DeepSeek struggled with the request – it misidentified my consumer as a special firm and returned principally Chinese language-language sources.
So, if you’d like DeepSeek to give you concepts for tales primarily based in your consumer’s firm profile, it’s possible you’ll not be capable to assume DeepSeek will determine it out by itself. As a substitute, you’ll probably have to stick an organization profile in, or, if the server is working appropriately, you might be able to add an internet site hyperlink.
I finally did get DeepSeek to work correctly and reference U.S. sources. Its concepts have been up-to-date, however extremely generic, much more so than ChatGPT’s. For instance, whereas DeepSeek recommended “The Impression of New State Privateness Legal guidelines within the U.S.” as a possible pitch matter for a knowledge privateness consumer, ChatGPT recommended “Challenges in Holding Firms Accountable for Information Breaches.” Because the phrase “impression” may very well be both constructive or damaging, I see the second headline as being extra clear and fascinating.
Nonetheless, I might say that a lot of the different concepts DeepSeek recommended have been similar to those ChatGPT introduced up. None have been notably new or thrilling. Clearly, ideation needs to be left principally to people for the foreseeable future.
Pitch writing – ChatGPT wins narrowly
Relating to writing a pitch – which is an e-mail suggesting an interview or requesting a possibility for a visitor article – each platforms carried out moderately nicely.
My customized model of ChatGPT, which I’ve educated on how I need pitches styled and phrased, did an honest job of writing a pitch on the subject I recommended. Even after I’ve used the generic free model of ChatGPT, it often does a fairly okay job, though it depends a bit too closely on jargon and the pitches are sometimes too lengthy.
DeepSeek, then again, created a really lengthy and detailed pitch, neither of which is perfect. When requested to shorten the pitch, it did so, nevertheless it included an excessive amount of punctuation. There have been random dashes, parentheses, slashes, and even equal indicators. I additionally observed a variety of pointless formatting, like bolded textual content and italics. Additionally, the DeepSeek pitches sounded unnatural and stilted. Granted, that’s a typical drawback with AI instruments typically.
Whereas I do imagine that ChatGPT received on this class, DeepSeek has the potential to enhance with higher immediate engineering and additional refinement of its language era capabilities.
Analysis – ChatGPT wins
ChatGPT is the clear chief in analysis capabilities, offering a a lot greater degree of accuracy and relevance. An audit from NewsGuard confirmed that, in its present kind, DeepSeek is correct just 17 percent of the time when referencing information articles and present occasions. Because the mannequin matures and its coaching improves, this accuracy might shift.
Hallucinations are a typical and well-known subject with AI instruments typically, and ChatGPT actually isn’t immune. Particularly, the free model of ChatGPT is ineffective for present occasions since its information solely extends as much as April 2023. However I’ve had only a few points with hallucinations from the paid model, and it’s glorious for analysis.
Disaster communications – DeepSeek wins
Maybe surprisingly, DeepSeek confirmed the best potential to assist deal with a disaster comms situation. My immediate was: “I’ve a PR disaster. My CEO simply put out the phrase that our firm has probably the most safe AI mannequin of all time, solely to undergo a serious knowledge breach hours later. How ought to I deal with this?”
ChatGPT provided an honest response, dividing its reply up into steps like “Quick Response,” “Rebuilding Belief,” and “Lengthy-Time period Repute Restoration.” Nonetheless, the response was restricted virtually solely to exterior communications, and the recommended media statements felt overly mechanical and formulaic.
In contrast, DeepSeek provided options for each exterior and inner comms and recommended methods to make sure that inner personnel didn’t step out of line when speaking to the media. Its responses have been extra human-sounding, and it gave an efficient and affordable technique.
Closing verdict: ChatGPT wins
Briefly, alongside the standards I selected, ChatGPT received in timeliness, accuracy, availability of the service, and relevancy. DeepSeek and ChatGPT each did fairly nicely when it comes to following directions and understanding PR phrases and duties.
Sadly, at the least for now, DeepSeek continues to be working by way of efficiency points, with a busy and sluggish server limiting entry and response high quality. If the corporate addresses these bottlenecks, DeepSeek’s reliability might enhance considerably.
DeepSeek additionally doesn’t appear to have a function to look by way of earlier chats. Whereas I’ve not often used this function in ChatGPT, I feel it’s nonetheless helpful for these occasions when you have to decide up the place you left off per week in the past with one in all your purchasers. On the constructive facet, when DeepSeek works, its responses are thorough, and the instrument is totally free.
Is DeepSeek extra biased than ChatGPT?
So let’s say you’re undeterred by the problems with DeepSeek and also you need to give it a strive. It’s possible you’ll be questioning whether or not potential biases will have an effect on your outcomes. I made a decision to provide this query its personal part, since there was a variety of commentary on the subject.
Once I requested DeepSeek about politically-charged subjects like tariffs and President Trump, it maintained a impartial, informative stance and politely requested me what my views have been. If something, ChatGPT is a little more opinionated, clearly leaning on articles that come from a specific viewpoint.
Nonetheless, when requested about China-specific political points, the biases grew to become much more clear, with one response ending in: “We firmly imagine that below the management of the Communist Social gathering of China, the entire reunification of the motherland is an inevitable development of historical past.” An article from The Guardian additionally examined DeepSeek vs. ChatGPT and Gemini on political subjects particular to China, and the outcomes have been patently biased.
Researchers have additionally printed research indicating that the DeepSeek R1 mannequin could also be 11 times more likely to generate dangerous content material than ChatGPT or an identical mannequin. I feel it is honest to say that relating to DeepSeek, as with every AI mannequin, you’ll need to be very cautious that bias doesn’t creep into your last product.
Is DeepSeek secure to make use of?
There’s yet one more query that needs to be extremely related to PR execs. Are you able to belief DeepSeek together with your knowledge, or the information of your purchasers as you give you six-month plans or work on refining bulletins which can be nonetheless below embargo?
I’m not satisfied that DeepSeek is secure to make use of when it comes to cybersecurity, and I imagine the issues go even additional than with TikTok. DeepSeek continues to be within the fledgling levels of securing its methods. Moreover the current knowledge leak, researchers have proven that DeepSeek has a 100 percent fail rate relating to defending itself in opposition to dangerous prompts – i.e. it doesn’t successfully block makes an attempt to generate misinformation, biased content material, or safety workarounds that may very well be exploited. Plus, journalists just lately uncovered that the DeepSeek privateness coverage explicitly allows DeepSeek to ship consumer knowledge to Chinese language corporations.
I’ll say that almost all AI instruments have comparable points: they aren’t safe sufficient to deal with delicate knowledge like monetary data, and so they’re run by firms that don’t essentially have the consumer’s finest pursuits at coronary heart. So in case your consumer provides you any proprietary data or delicate knowledge, it’s most likely finest to keep away from inputting any of that data into AI instruments, whether or not you’re utilizing DeepSeek or ChatGPT.
DeepSeek or ChatGPT?
Regardless of the hype, DeepSeek in some ways stays a fledgling mannequin. It’s typically unavailable or overwhelmed with too many customers and requests unexpectedly. It hasn’t found out differentiate itself successfully, and it feels extra robotic and rancid than ChatGPT at occasions, which is saying one thing. The instrument additionally has some obvious points with bias and safety. So whereas it might be good for groups with a really small funds, my private advice is to pay the $20 for ChatGPT or check out one in all OpenAI’s extra established rivals. Lastly, let’s not overlook that that is DeepSeek’s first main mannequin, and they need to be given a while to ascertain themselves, simply as OpenAI and even Google who confronted challenges with their preliminary fashions.