It seems like just yesterday DeepSeek burst onto the AI scene, making waves with its impressive capabilities. Now, they've quietly dropped another update, DeepSeek R1 (0528), and the AI community, particularly on Reddit, is buzzing again. This isn't just a minor tweak; early reports suggest a significant reduction in "hallucinations" – around 45-50% – and performance that's now nipping at the heels of OpenAI's o3 and Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro.
Over on Reddit, in subreddits like r/LocalLLaMA and r/SillyTavernAI, threads are popping up discussing the new R1. Users are sharing benchmark results and their own experiences, with many expressing genuine surprise and excitement. One user excitedly posted, "Completely upgraded Deepseek R1 is performing almost on par with OpenAI's O3 model on LiveCodeBench! Huge win for open source!" The sentiment echoes across these communities.
What's really catching people's attention are the improvements in specific areas. Developers are praising R1's enhanced performance in math and coding tasks, especially when tackling complex integrals or recursive functions. It's not just about getting the answer; testers are noting that R1-0528 exhibits "longer-term thinking" and a proactive approach, "not giving up so quickly." One developer shared, "Just tested... I have a pretty complex 1200 lines of code and added new features... The code quality seems to be at o3 level now... Can only say WOW."
DeepSeek itself states that the updated R1 model has achieved top-tier results domestically across various benchmarks like math, programming, and general logic, bringing its overall performance close to international leaders like o3 and Gemini-2.5-Pro. The update focuses on deeper thinking, improved reasoning, tool calling capabilities, and a significant optimization for reducing hallucinations. Creative writing has also seen an upgrade, with the model now capable of producing longer, more structured pieces that are more aligned with human preferences.
While DeepSeek acknowledges that its tool-calling capabilities are currently comparable to OpenAI's o1-high but still lag behind o3-High and Claude 4 Sonnet, the progress is undeniable. The R1 model also boasts enhancements in frontend code generation and role-playing scenarios. The AI role-playing community, often a stringent testing ground for conversational continuity, has reported that characters can now recall subtle past details and respond with a surprising degree of autonomy. "A character argued with me about a point and brought up three specific details from the past," one user on r/SillyTavernAI shared, adding, "I've never seen anything like it before. AI usually doesn't take the initiative; I've trained some AIs to be dominant in conversations, but this is the first time I've seen an AI step out of the role-playing scenario."
Some users are even claiming R1-0528 has achieved perfect scores across all their tests. "The past few weeks have been a blur – OpenAI 4.1, Gemini 2.5, Claude 4 – they've all been excellent, but none have scored perfect on every single test. DeepSeek R1 0528 is the first model ever to do that," one user declared. These aren't just casual tests; they're described as complex edge cases used in real-world commercial applications.
The excitement isn't confined to Reddit. On X (formerly Twitter), users are sharing benchmark charts and highlighting DeepSeek's programming prowess. One user mentioned building a game with R1-0528, calling its coding ability "insanely strong" and noting significant improvements over previous versions. The thought of what DeepSeek R2 might bring has many anticipating further leaps.
Independent analysis from Artificial Analysis also places DeepSeek's R1 ahead of models from xAI, Meta, and Anthropic on their "Intelligence Index." Specifically, it's noted to be more intelligent than xAI's Grok 3 mini (high), NVIDIA's Llama Nemotron Ultra, Meta's Llama 4 Maverick, and Alibaba's Qwen 3 253, and on par with Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro. The biggest gains for DeepSeek were seen in AIME 2024 (competitive math), LiveCodeBench (code generation), GPQA Diamond (scientific reasoning), and Humanity's Last Exam (reasoning and knowledge).
However, it's not all unqualified praise. Some users on X point out that while R1 is impressive, its API still has a 64k context window, which is not cutting-edge compared to models like Claude 4, especially for coding tasks. DeepSeek acknowledges this, noting that a 128k context version is available through third-party platforms. Others still prefer Gemini 2.5 Pro for its massive context window, even if DeepSeek might be SOTA (state-of-the-art) in math and logic.
Despite these nuances, the combination of low cost, open weights, and powerful performance is a significant draw. The low-key release itself has become a talking point, with some users humorously suggesting they should have been given advance notice to sell their Nvidia and AMD stocks, a nod to the market impact of DeepSeek's earlier releases. One Reddit user poetically described DeepSeek's understated excellence: "Others orchestrate grand symphonies of anticipation – lavish keynotes, meticulously crafted demos, security declarations reading like geopolitical treaties – DeepSeek offers a quiet sonnet. They hand you a masterpiece wrapped in plain paper, whispering, 'Feels useful; hope you like it.'"
The core appeal for many developers remains the "open weights" aspect. While not strictly "open source" in the sense of releasing training code and data, making the model weights publicly available allows for greater transparency and customization. This has led to discussions on Hacker News and Reddit about what truly constitutes open AI, with many appreciating DeepSeek's contribution while acknowledging the limitations of not having full access to training data.
Even with its massive 671 billion parameters, R1 is still a huge model for average users. Yet, the comparison with ChatGPT is becoming standard. OpenAI's restrictions on full access to its top models or high pricing stand in contrast to DeepSeek's more accessible and downloadable weights. "DeepSeek is the true OPEN AI," one user declared on Reddit.
There are, of course, criticisms. Some Reddit users have raised concerns about DeepSeek's built-in content moderation, finding that it "avoids" certain questions. However, the common counter-argument is that with open weights, developers are free to fine-tune the model to their specific needs. It's also noted that all major models have content filtering, just with different priorities.
A popular thread on Reddit titled "Open Source AI is catching up!" highlights DeepSeek as a company genuinely competing at the forefront, unlike others who hold back their largest models. The sentiment is that without DeepSeek, the claim that open-source models can't catch up might have held true. As one commenter sharply put it, "They are doing this because affordable intelligence will drive a revolution, and Deepseek will be remembered by the public as the true pioneers of AI, not Google, ClosedAI, or the falsely secure Anthropics, who are drowning the world in ads."
The narrative of open-source AI closing the gap is strong, with DeepSeek R1's latest update serving as a powerful testament to this evolving landscape.