Kevin Roose

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.

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.

And so the people that I talk to in the tech industry who are at startups or smaller companies are very excited about this. This is a great development for them. And it also means that if you are a person who worries that all the AI power is going to go to a few huge companies, then the democratization of AI through open source models like DeepSeek probably makes you feel optimistic.

And so the people that I talk to in the tech industry who are at startups or smaller companies are very excited about this. This is a great development for them. And it also means that if you are a person who worries that all the AI power is going to go to a few huge companies, then the democratization of AI through open source models like DeepSeek probably makes you feel optimistic.

So that is the positive case for this. But there are also a lot of people who are really worried about what DeepSeek has done. I think the DeepSeek moment has really sparked a lot of new fears about how quickly this whole field of AI is progressing. I mean, just in the last few years,

So that is the positive case for this. But there are also a lot of people who are really worried about what DeepSeek has done. I think the DeepSeek moment has really sparked a lot of new fears about how quickly this whole field of AI is progressing. I mean, just in the last few years,

The leading AI models have gone from maybe being as smart as the average high school student to as smart as a college student to now being able to complete a lot of tasks that would have taken a PhD to complete. So these models are just getting much better very quickly. And a lot of folks in the AI community are just nervous about that. They say things like, well, maybe we're going to get...

The leading AI models have gone from maybe being as smart as the average high school student to as smart as a college student to now being able to complete a lot of tasks that would have taken a PhD to complete. So these models are just getting much better very quickly. And a lot of folks in the AI community are just nervous about that. They say things like, well, maybe we're going to get...

an AI that is as smart as the smartest humans in just a few years. And we don't really have a playbook for dealing with technology that is more intelligent than us. And so there are people who worry about these sort of runaway AI scenarios where you get super intelligent AIs that can sort of take control or maybe even harm humans.

an AI that is as smart as the smartest humans in just a few years. And we don't really have a playbook for dealing with technology that is more intelligent than us. And so there are people who worry about these sort of runaway AI scenarios where you get super intelligent AIs that can sort of take control or maybe even harm humans.

But even if you're not a believer in that kind of superhuman intelligence risk, There are just a lot of questions about whether we as a society are ready for advanced AI. Are we ready for the possibility that it could eliminate jobs? Are we ready for the possibility that it could really lead to a proliferation of misinformation or propaganda or even automated cyber attacks and things like that?

But even if you're not a believer in that kind of superhuman intelligence risk, There are just a lot of questions about whether we as a society are ready for advanced AI. Are we ready for the possibility that it could eliminate jobs? Are we ready for the possibility that it could really lead to a proliferation of misinformation or propaganda or even automated cyber attacks and things like that?