Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek has added multimodal capabilities to its flagship chatbot for the first time – meaning that it can process images and video in addition to text – bringing it in line with rivals that already offer the function.

The limited release to select users comes just days after the Hangzhou-based company released its new flagship model V4, which was followed by extensive price cuts.

According to DeepSeek multimodal team leader Chen Xiaokang, who made the...