What we’re reading (1/27) - DeepSeek
“The DeepSeek AI Freakout” (Wall Street Journal). “Who saw that coming? Not Wall Street, which sold off tech stocks on Monday after the weekend news that a highly sophisticated Chinese AI model, DeepSeek, rivals Big Tech-built systems but cost a fraction to develop. The implications are likely to be far-reaching, and not merely in equities.”
“What To Know About DeepSeek And How It Is Upending A.I.” (New York Times). “Tech stocks tumbled. Giant companies like Meta and Nvidia faced a barrage of questions about their future. Tech executives took to social media to proclaim their fears. And it was all because of a little-known Chinese artificial intelligence start-up called DeepSeek.”
“China’s DeepSeek Surprise” (The Atlantic). “To understand what’s so impressive about DeepSeek, one has to look back to last month, when OpenAI launched its own technical breakthrough: the full release of o1, a new kind of AI model that, unlike all the “GPT”-style programs before it, appears able to ‘reason’ through challenging problems. o1 displayed leaps in performance on some of the most challenging math, coding, and other tests available, and sent the rest of the AI industry scrambling to replicate the new reasoning model—which OpenAI disclosed very few technical details about. The start-up, and thus the American AI industry, were on top…DeepSeek, less than two months later, not only exhibits those same “reasoning” capabilities apparently at much lower costs but has also spilled to the rest of the world at least one way to match OpenAI’s more covert methods.”
“Nvidia Sheds Almost $600 Billion In Market Cap, Biggest One-Day Loss In U.S. History” (CNBC). “Nvidia lost close to $600 billion in market cap on Monday, the biggest drop for any company on a single day in U.S. history. The chipmaker’s stock price plummeted 17% to close at $118.58. It was Nvidia’s worst day on the market since March 16, 2020, which was early in the Covid pandemic. After Nvidia surpassed Apple last week to become the most valuable publicly traded company, the stock’s drop Monday led a 3.1% slide in the tech-heavy Nasdaq.”
“The Tech Industry Is In A Frenzy Over DeepSeek. Here’s Who Could Win And Lose From China's AI Progress.” (Business Insider). “On Amazon's internal Slack, one person posted a meme suggesting that developers might drop Anthropic's Claude AI model in favor of DeepSeek’s offerings. The post included an image of the Claude model crossed out. ‘Friendship ended with Claude. Now DeepSeek is my best friend.’ the person wrote, according to a screenshot of the post seen by BI, which got more than 60 emoji reactions from colleagues.”
