Chinese electric vehicle producer Chery’s R&D robotics arm Aimoga, has partnered with DeepSeek, which continues its tear as more Chinese brands choose to align themselves with the AI platform over OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Though DeepSeek’s best models are comparable to ChatGPT 4o, its selling point is its affordability.
DeepSeek takes a bite at the Chery
DeepSeek’s models, compared to ChatGPT 40, were developed on fewer GPUs, and are more power-efficient to run. The resulting affordability matters in an AI age where industry leader OpenAI, is constantly clamouring that innovation is impossible without a constant supply of fresh billions in funding.
DeepSeek has been running a victory lap over the past weeks with multiple brand partnerships. Auto-maker Chery joins that list, looking to exploit DeepSeek’s affordability to improve voice interaction on its Aimoga robots. The car brand will likely also integrate the models into its AI-based CheryLion AI smart cockpit system.
Chery has been investing in AI since 2010, collaborating with brands like Baidu. The company developed its CheryLion platform in 2018. By 2020, the car company had started an R&D project for developing humanoid robots. The project would launch as Aimogo in 2023, a company specialising in humanoid and canine robots. Their utility… remains to be seen.
With the arrival of useable, always-improving artificial intelligence, robotics has kind of lagged behind. But robotics hardware may finally get a chance to catch up to the software with the help of AI. Chery and Aimoga seem to be one of a few robotics companies looking to make humanoid robot helpers a viable retail product.
Aimoga robots are already equipped with DeepSeek’s V1, V2, and R1 models. Its robotics division announced the beginning of mass production last year and promises to start selling robots within the first half of this year. The final price is anyone’s guess.
