DeepSeek has launched R1, a new open-source AI model that competes with OpenAI's o1 in math, coding, and reasoning benchmarks, at a significantly lower cost. R1's API access starts at $0.14 per million tokens, compared to $7.50 for OpenAI. While R1 shows promising capabilities, it faces limitations due to Chinese government censorship. Despite this, the model marks a significant step in making advanced AI more accessible and affordable.