In a stunning demonstration of China’s accelerating artificial intelligence capabilities, the AI application “Lingguang” has achieved what no other global AI product has accomplished—reaching one million downloads in just four days, surpassing the initial growth rates of ChatGPT, Sora2, and even DeepSeek itself.
The Record-Shattering Rise of Lingguang
Launched on November 18 by Ant Group, Lingguang has taken the AI world by storm. According to official data, the application hit 20,000 downloads on its first day, surpassed 50,000 within two days, and crossed the one million milestone by day four. This explosive growth propelled Lingguang to sixth place on China’s iOS free chart and first place in the tools category.
This performance sets a new global benchmark. Data from mobile analytics firm Appfigures shows that ChatGPT took approximately a week to reach 606,000 downloads in its initial launch phase, while Sora2 needed five days to hit one million users. Lingguang compressed this timeline to just four days.
What Makes Lingguang Different?
Unlike conventional AI assistants, Lingguang distinguishes itself through three core features: “Lingguang Dialogue,” “Lingguang Flash Applications,” and “Lingguang Open Eyes”. The most revolutionary of these is arguably the “Flash Applications” function, which enables users to generate functional mini-applications using natural language in just 30 seconds on mobile devices.
Technical innovation sits at the heart of Lingguang’s appeal. As the industry’s first fully code-generated multimodal content AI assistant, it supports 3D, audio-video, charts, animations, maps, and other forms of multimodal information output. This creates more dynamic conversations and efficient communication.
As He Zhenyu, Ant Group’s CTO, explained with an apt analogy: previous applications were like early email—primarily text-based—while Lingguang represents the evolution to web pages rich with images and text, offering much richer expression.
The DeepSeek Connection: A Foundation for Global Innovation
The spectacular rise of Lingguang comes amid growing global recognition of Chinese AI models, particularly DeepSeek. In a development that underscores DeepSeek’s international impact, Silicon Valley startup Deep Cogito recently released what it called “the best open-source large language model made by an American company”—Cogito v2.1 671B.
The revelation? This supposedly American-made model was actually built on DeepSeek-V3-Base, as discovered by sharp-eyed users who found the telltale code “base_model: deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V3-Base” in its configuration files.
Deep Cogito’s CEO Drishan Arora displayed surprising transparency about building upon DeepSeek, stating that “pre-training has become like generating electricity—a universal commodity” in today’s AI landscape. He emphasized that the real challenge lies in post-training that pushes models to cutting-edge intelligence levels.
This acknowledgment represents significant validation for DeepSeek’s technological prowess. As the AI community has witnessed, creating a 671B parameter model from scratch requires hundreds of millions of dollars, while building upon existing high-quality open-source models like DeepSeek offers a pragmatic alternative for rapid market entry.
Shifting Global AI Dynamics
The success of Lingguang and the global adoption of DeepSeek models signal a subtle transformation in the worldwide AI competitive landscape. While the United States has focused on “technology-driven” original innovation, China’s AI industry excels at “application-driven” innovation that transforms cutting-edge technology into tangible productivity.
This transition from text-based interactions to full-modality capable assistants represents the new frontier in AI development. As Liu Dian, Director of the Artificial Intelligence International Governance Institute at Tsinghua University, observed: “The competition in AI is shifting from basic model comparisons to the competition for consumer application portals. In this process, China’s unique ecological advantages are reemerging and demonstrating significant effectiveness in the AI era.”
The Road Ahead
The response to Lingguang has been so overwhelming that the service required eight emergency capacity expansions within just four days of launch, primarily to support the “Flash Applications” feature. The application has also attracted attention from international AI experts and tech influencers.
Kirk Borne, an American AI strategy expert with 96,000 LinkedIn followers, noted that the “Flash Applications” function enhances the inclusivity and productivity of AI applications: “Non-technical people can easily develop functional applications, transforming them from ‘AI users’ to ‘AI creators.'”
Meanwhile, Singapore-based AI influencer Madapparambath highlighted how Lingguang has revolutionized how ordinary users interact with AI: “Most people still think of AI as something to use, not something to actively build—Lingguang has completely subverted this concept.”
Even Jack Ma made a rare appearance at the Ant Group campus, encouraging the team “to charge forward”—a signal of the strategic importance of this product.
Conclusion: A New Chapter in AI Accessibility
The parallel narratives of Lingguang’s record-breaking adoption and DeepSeek’s global influence underscore a significant shift in the AI landscape. Chinese AI innovation is not just keeping pace but setting new standards in both application development and foundational model creation.
As He Zhenyu aptly stated, “The AGI era is about fully enjoying technological dividends. Whoever can transform this into a普惠 product will enjoy more era dividends.” With DeepSeek providing world-class open-source models and applications like Lingguang democratizing AI creation, we’re witnessing the next chapter of AI accessibility unfold—where everyone can transition from being AI users to AI creators.
The “灵光” (lingguang) that has suddenly appeared represents not just a flash of inspiration but a fundamental shift in how artificial intelligence integrates with human creativity and productivity worldwide.