Peter Thiel-Backed Nonprofit Sentient Aims To Be America's DeepSeek, Takes Aim At Closed AI Systems

Sentient, a San Francisco-based AI development lab backed by Peter Thiel's Founder’s Fund, has unveiled its open-source AI search framework, positioning its work as a response to China's DeepSeek.

What Happened: Sentient released its Open Deep Search (ODS) framework, stating that it outperforms major closed-source competitors like OpenAI's GPT-4o Search Preview and Perplexity Sonar Reasoning Pro, reported Decrypt.

The nonprofit lab argues that its open-source approach challenges the growing control of AI by closed-source corporations. Its ODS achieved a 75.3% accuracy on the FRAMES benchmark, the company said.

See Also: Elon Musk Says Tesla Doesn't Need Lidar Because ‘People Don't Shoot Lasers Out Of Their Eyes' After YouTubers Put His Cars Through Wylie E. Coyote Tests

Sentient co-founder Himanshu Tyagi said that the system requires models to synthesize knowledge from multiple sources, avoiding artificial boosts from preloaded data. To enhance efficiency, traditional “ground truth” resources like Wikipedia were intentionally excluded, according to the report.

Why It Matters: The company positioned the release of ODS as America's answer to China’s DeepSeek. As a nonprofit, Sentient advocates for AI development to be community-driven rather than dominated by closed-source corporations.

DeepSeek's AI breakthrough in late January sparked a major selloff in U.S. tech stocks, wiping $593 billion from Nvidia Corp.’s NVDA market value as investors grew concerned about rising competition.

Subscribe to the Benzinga Tech Trends newsletter to get all the latest tech developments delivered to your inbox.

Last month, DeepSeek released its upgraded V3 model, enhancing its reasoning and coding capabilities.

DeepSeek’s founder, Liang Wenfeng, has also opted to keep the company’s core AI models open-source, rejecting monetization plans.

Microsoft Corporation MSFT CEO Satya Nadella has also reportedly acknowledged DeepSeek as a “wake-up call” for the tech giant, urging his teams to focus on creating impactful products.

Image via Shutterstock

Check out more of Benzinga's Consumer Tech coverage by following this link.

Read Next:

• Jamie Dimon Cashed Out $234 Million In JPMorgan Stock, Warren Buffett Stockpiled $334 Billion In Cash — Weeks Later, Markets Crashed. Coincidence?

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.