
DeepSeek, a new player in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) field, has heralded a massive change in the industry and is emerging as a strong competitor to established AI models like ChatGPT and Gemini.
Its success is largely attributed to the team of "young geniuses" behind it, particularly a 29-year-old researcher who has earned recognition as an "AI prodigy" in Chinese media, as reported by the South China Morning Post.
Who is Luo Fuli?
Luo Fuli, a key figure in the development of DeepSeek-V2 and other large language models, has played a pivotal role in making DeepSeek’s models competitive with those of ChatGPT, but at a significantly lower cost.
Early career
Luo’s expertise in natural language processing has made her a prominent figure in the AI research community. Her academic journey began at Beijing Normal University, followed by her acceptance into Peking University’s Institute of Computational Linguistics. In 2019, she gained recognition by publishing eight papers at the prestigious ACL conference, considered a notable achievement in the field.
Industry recognition
Luo’s work attracted the attention of major tech giants like Alibaba and Xiaomi. In 2022, she joined DeepSeek, which was then known as a quantitative hedge fund, High-Flyer, specialising in complex trading algorithms. By 2023, DeepSeek had shifted its focus toward AI, and it was during her time there, particularly while developing DeepSeek-V2, that Luo’s talents became even more widely recognised.
Luo’s expertise didn’t go unnoticed by Xiaomi’s founder, Lei Jun, who reportedly offered her 10 million yuan to join the company.
In 2024, Luo, along with others, published a paper that made DeepSeek’s open-source codes available to the wider research community, further advancing the boundaries of AI research.
Other key players
Beyond Luo Fuli, DeepSeek’s team has been assembled with a fresh and innovative approach by its founder, Liang Wenfeng, who studied AI at Zhejiang University.
The team, according to a technical report published by South China Morning Post, includes 150 Chinese researchers and engineers, along with a 31-person team of data automation researchers.
The DeepSeek team is composed of young, talented individuals, including recent graduates and those with limited work experience. Key members include:
- Guo Daya, a fresh PhD graduate from Sun Yat-sen University
- Zhu Qihao and Dai Damai, both PhD graduates from Peking University
- Gao Huazuo, a physics student from Peking University
- Zeng Wangding, an AI student from the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications