DeepSeek: Hype and Reality

<p>The stock market was sent reeling today as a result of the release by the Chinese company DeepSeek of an open source AI model that comes close to or matches the performance of American models, but was created for a fraction of the cost. While traditional models have cost in the range of $100 million to $1 billion to produce, the latest application from DeepSeek was reportedly created for <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/chinas-deepseek-sets-off-ai-market-rout-2025-01-27/" target="_blank">under $6 million.</a> </p><p>Wanting to know more, I invited <a href="https://www.fromthenew.world/?utm_source=substack&#38;utm_medium=web&#38;utm_campaign=substack_profile" target="_blank">Brian Chau</a> on for a livestream to discuss. Some of the questions we cover:</p><p>* What does it mean for a model to be open source?</p><p>* Why would a business release an open source model? </p><p>* Should you sell all your Nvidia stock?</p><p>* How do we know that DeepSeek really cost under $6 million to build?</p><p>* Can its costs be verified?</p><p>* What might the intentions of the Chinese Communist Party be in letting this happen? </p><p>* Will AI <a href="https://www.aporiamagazine.com/p/yes-youre-going-to-be-replaced" target="_blank">take all the jobs?</a> </p><p>* Has Brian’s p(doom) changed at all?</p><p>* When will us writers be replaceable?</p><p>* Has Brian’s vision of a hands off approach to AI regulation won? </p><p>* Did Big Yud go down with the Kamala ship? </p><p>As a non-expert, I found it very useful to have an hour in which to pick Brian’s brain. I can’t recommend this conversation enough for those who want to make sense of what has happened in AI over the last few days. </p> <br /><br />This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href="https://www.richardhanania.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&#38;utm_campaign=CTA_2">www.richardhanania.com/subscribe</a>