On Sunday, Tencent stated that its Weixin messaging app, which is the largest in China, is enabling some users to conduct searches through DeepSeek’s artificial intelligence model as companies are competing to connect with this AI startup. In a beta test, Weixin is testing the access to DeepSeek for search purposes, as Tencent said in a statement to Reuters. The move of the Chinese tech giant is remarkable as integrating DeepSeek brings in an external AI platform, while tech companies are fiercely competing in developing the most advanced AI. A spokesperson said that Weixin uses Tencent’s proprietary Hunyuan large language model to enhance its AI search. A person with knowledge of the matter stated that Tencent is exploring the integration of multiple products with DeepSeek, including Tencent Cloud AI Code Assistant and Tencent Yuanbao, another AI assistant app.
Go to search at the top and tap “AI搜索”
The default AI engine is Tencent’s Hunyuan, you can tap “快速回答” to switich it to Deepseek
DeepSeek is currently being tested by Weixin, which caters to domestic users, rather than its sister app WeChat, which is aimed at overseas users. By the end of September, the two apps had a total of 1.38 billion users.
In a different announcement, Baidu declared that it would fully connect its search engine to both DeepSeek and its own Ernie large language model.
Last month, DeepSeek made a significant impact in the AI field. It launched a free AI assistant, claiming that it uses less data and costs only a fraction of existing services. It rapidly surpassed its US competitor ChatGPT in downloads from Apple’s App Store.
Among Chinese companies looking to take advantage of DeepSeek’s potential breakthroughs, automaker Great Wall Motor and leading telecom providers are incorporating the AI model released by DeepSeek into their products and services.
