DeepSeek V3-0324 has achieved a major milestone by becoming the top-scoring non-reasoning model on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, marking a significant breakthrough for open-source AI.

In a notable improvement, the new model has advanced by seven points in the benchmark, surpassing proprietary models such as Google’s Gemini 2.0 Pro, Anthropic’s Claude 3.7 Sonnet, and Meta’s Llama 3.3 70B.

Although DeepSeek V3-0324 lags behind reasoning models, including DeepSeek’s own R1 and offerings from OpenAI and Alibaba, this achievement underscores the increasing viability of open-source solutions in applications where low latency is crucial and immediate responses are necessary.

DeepSeek V3-0324 represents a new era for open-source AI

Non-reasoning models, which generate answers instantly without deliberate “thinking” phases, are essential for real-time use cases like chatbots, customer service automation, and live translation. With DeepSeek’s latest iteration, the standard for these applications has been set, even surpassing leading proprietary tools.

“This marks the first time an open weights model has led as the top non-reasoning model, a significant milestone for open-source,” states Artificial Analysis. The model’s performance has brought it closer to proprietary reasoning models, although the latter remain superior for tasks requiring complex problem-solving.

DeepSeek V3-0324 retains most specifications from its December 2024 predecessor, including:  

• 128k context window (capped at 64k via DeepSeek’s API)
• 671 billion total parameters, requiring over 700GB of GPU memory for FP8 precision
• 37 billion active parameters
• Text-only functionality (no multimodal support) 
• MIT License

“It’s still not feasible to run this model at home,” Artificial Analysis notes, highlighting its requirement for enterprise-grade infrastructure.

Open-source AI is gaining momentum

While proprietary reasoning models like DeepSeek R1 still dominate the broader Intelligence Index, the gap is narrowing.

Just three months ago, DeepSeek V3 nearly matched Anthropic’s and Google’s proprietary models but fell short of surpassing them. Today, the updated V3-0324 not only leads open-source alternatives but also outperforms all proprietary non-reasoning rivals.

“This release is arguably even more impressive than R1,” says Artificial Analysis.

DeepSeek’s progress signals a shift in the AI sector, where open-source frameworks are increasingly competing with closed systems. For developers and enterprises, the MIT-licensed V3-0324 offers a powerful, adaptable tool, although its computational costs may limit accessibility.

“DeepSeek is now driving the frontier of non-reasoning open weights models,” declares Artificial Analysis.

With R2 on the horizon, the community awaits another potential leap in AI performance.

(Photo by Paul Hanaoka)

See also: Hugging Face calls for open-source focus in the AI Action Plan

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