Kevin Roose

Yeah, I mean, there's this saying in the tech industry that constraints inspire creativity. And that is definitely true here. DeepSeq did not have access to the best American AI chips. They did not have the largest budget or the most sophisticated team, but they were really scrappy and smart. They had a lot of really good young engineers and they were able to pull this off.

So what the AI companies in America are saying in response to this market panic is, look, we've still got to build these big, expensive supercomputers to stay at the forefront of AI, to have the best models. And if we take the techniques that DeepSeq has now shown are possible, these efficiency gains, We could have them too.

So what the AI companies in America are saying in response to this market panic is, look, we've still got to build these big, expensive supercomputers to stay at the forefront of AI, to have the best models. And if we take the techniques that DeepSeq has now shown are possible, these efficiency gains, We could have them too.

Think about how powerful our models would be if we put a billion dollars into the same kind of model that DeepSeek was able to make for much less. So that is what the American AI companies are saying. But I think there are real questions among investors about whether the scale of investment that they have been planning is really necessary.

Think about how powerful our models would be if we put a billion dollars into the same kind of model that DeepSeek was able to make for much less. So that is what the American AI companies are saying. But I think there are real questions among investors about whether the scale of investment that they have been planning is really necessary.

I think it threw into question this fundamental assumption that only the big dogs could play in AI. You had to be Microsoft or Amazon or Google if you wanted a chance to build the state-of-the-art AI models.

I think it threw into question this fundamental assumption that only the big dogs could play in AI. You had to be Microsoft or Amazon or Google if you wanted a chance to build the state-of-the-art AI models.

And I think what the Deep Seek story suggested is that there may be a whole other world of competitors out there trying to stay close to the frontier and that they might not have to have the resources of one of the world's largest corporations to do it.

And I think what the Deep Seek story suggested is that there may be a whole other world of competitors out there trying to stay close to the frontier and that they might not have to have the resources of one of the world's largest corporations to do it.

But there was one other piece of this that I think really suggests that the AI race has entered a new phase, which is that DeepSeek did something that a lot of American companies have been hesitant to do, which is that they released their AI models as open source software, meaning that anyone on the internet can download and use, can make their own versions of, can adapt, can tweak.

But there was one other piece of this that I think really suggests that the AI race has entered a new phase, which is that DeepSeek did something that a lot of American companies have been hesitant to do, which is that they released their AI models as open source software, meaning that anyone on the internet can download and use, can make their own versions of, can adapt, can tweak.

It is software that can be reused and remixed and improved upon. by anyone. And so when DeepSeek released its models this way, they really sent a message to the world that says, we are serious here about competing. And we're so serious that we're going to give away our models for free so that anyone who wants to can make them better.

It is software that can be reused and remixed and improved upon. by anyone. And so when DeepSeek released its models this way, they really sent a message to the world that says, we are serious here about competing. And we're so serious that we're going to give away our models for free so that anyone who wants to can make them better.

And so all of a sudden, it just flipped the entire AI race onto its head and really sent it into a new gear.

And so all of a sudden, it just flipped the entire AI race onto its head and really sent it into a new gear.

So it's a complicated question to answer because there are ways in which it is probably good and ways in which it is probably bad. The case that this is a good thing is that in general, when you make things cheaper, they can be accessible to more people. I mean, remember, DeepSeek is not just free to use in the app or on the website.

So it's a complicated question to answer because there are ways in which it is probably good and ways in which it is probably bad. The case that this is a good thing is that in general, when you make things cheaper, they can be accessible to more people. I mean, remember, DeepSeek is not just free to use in the app or on the website.

It was also released as open source software, meaning that anyone with an Internet connection can download it and install it on their own computers or maybe tweak it to serve their own purposes. So if you are a person who wants to use AI, maybe you have a small business or maybe you just want to use this to help you grow. write letters or emails. Maybe you're a student who wants to use this.

It was also released as open source software, meaning that anyone with an Internet connection can download it and install it on their own computers or maybe tweak it to serve their own purposes. So if you are a person who wants to use AI, maybe you have a small business or maybe you just want to use this to help you grow. write letters or emails. Maybe you're a student who wants to use this.

You can now access a very powerful model for free. Maybe you are a developer or a startup who wants to build your own AI tools. Well, now you have this deep seek model that you can kind of take off the shelf as open source software and build your own version of it or run it on your own hardware.