HONG KONG/SHANGHAI (Reuters) -Tencent said on Sunday its Weixin messaging app, China’s largest, is allowing some users to search via DeepSeek’s artificial intelligence model as firms race to link up with the AI startup.

In a beta test, Weixin is testing access to DeepSeek for searches, Tencent said in a statement to Reuters.

The move by the Chinese tech giant is notable as integrating DeepSeek brings in an external AI platform, while tech firms compete fiercely in developing the most advanced AI.

Weixin uses Tencent’s proprietary Hunyuan large language model to enrich its AI search, a spokesperson said.

Tencent is exploring the integration of multiple products with DeepSeek, including Tencent Cloud AI Code Assistant and Tencent Yuanbao, another AI assistant app, said a person with knowledge of the matter.

DeepSeek is being tested by Weixin, which serves domestic users, not its sister app WeChat, which targets overseas users. The two had a combined 1.38 billion users at the end of September. 

In a separate announcement, Baidu said it would fully connect its search engine to DeepSeek as well as its proprietary Ernie large language model.

DeepSeek last month upended the AI world, launching a free AI assistant that it says uses less data at a fraction of the cost of incumbent services. It quickly overtook U.S. rival ChatGPT in downloads from Apple’s App Store.

Among Chinese companies seeking to capitalise on DeepSeek’s potential breakthrough, automaker Great Wall Motor and leading telecoms providers are integrating the AI model released by DeepSeek into their offerings. 

(Reporting by Selena Li and Brenda Goh; Editing by Jamie Freed, William Mallard and Angus MacSwan)