The Chinese AI startup is hiring specialists to build an AI search engine capable of supporting different languages, according to multiple job postings from the company this month. In other open roles shared by the company, DeepSeek detailed the need for training data, evaluation systems and dedicated platforms to support agents, or AI tools that run with limited need for human intervention.
Bloomberg
DeepSeek is looking to broaden its AI offerings with new artificial intelligence search features and more emphasis on agents, ramping up competition with US firms like OpenAI and Alphabet Inc.’s Google.
The Chinese AI startup is hiring specialists to build an AI search engine capable of supporting different languages, according to multiple job postings from the company this month. The planned search options are meant to be multimodal, meaning they can process a range of inputs from text to images and audio for those looking up information.
In other open roles shared by the company, DeepSeek detailed the need for training data, evaluation systems and dedicated platforms to support agents, or AI tools that run with limited need for human intervention. DeepSeek also signaled in the postings that it expects to have numerous agents running persistently.
DeepSeek rattled the AI sector last January with the release of its R1 model, which rivaled cutting-edge options from leading US firms and was purportedly built at a fraction of the cost. A year later, many industry watchers are eagerly awaiting a successor to that model.
In late December, the company published a paper outlining a more efficient approach to developing AI. Such publications from DeepSeek have foreshadowed major model releases in the past. But the secretive startup has offered few clues about its next product, beyond a recent, vague reference to “model1” on its public account on GitHub, a developer platform.
The new job postings, more than a dozen in total, offer the latest hint at DeepSeek’s direction. Other AI developers, including OpenAI, are also investing in AI search and agents, with the goal of expanding beyond traditional chatbots to offer services that tackle more day-to-day tasks on a person’s behalf.
Representatives for DeepSeek did not respond to a request for comment.
In the postings, DeepSeek repeatedly emphasized its ambition to build artificial general intelligence, or AGI, echoing the mission of other top AI firms. AGI refers to a more powerful form of AI that would match or exceed humans in many tasks.
In an ad for a full-stack developer, for example, DeepSeek asked that the candidates have a “persistent curiosity about the technological path and development of artificial general intelligence.”
--With assistance from Jessica Sui and Zheping Huang.
Saritha Rai, Thu, January
