The 'Minor Upgrade' That’s Anything But: DeepSeek R1 0528 Deep Dive

DeepSeek's upgraded reasoning model, DeepSeek-R1-0528, has made significant strides in mathematical reasoning and coding capabilities, making it a formidable competitor in the AI landscape. Released with minimal fanfare, this open-source model uses a Mixture-of-Experts architecture to efficiently handle complex, multi-step mathematical problems, as evidenced by its improved performance on the AIME 2025 test, where it scored 87.5% accuracy. Additionally, the model excelled in the LiveCodeBench challenge, showcasing its ability to write, iterate, and debug code in realistic scenarios. A notable enhancement is the dramatic reduction in AI hallucinations, improving the model's reliability and factual grounding. While it sacrifices some of the creative unpredictability of its predecessor, this trade-off results in greater coherence and systematic problem-solving. The model's advancements have been effectively distilled into smaller, more efficient versions without losing performance, and it remains a viable, cost-effective alternative to proprietary models, particularly for large-scale projects.