Issue #72: DeepSeek and the Week That Changed AI
Howdy 👋🏾. What a week for AI.
In just a few days, DeepSeek passed ChatGPT as the number one app on the App Store, changed the narrative on training costs, and caused NVIDIA to suffer the biggest one-day loss in market value for a company—ever.
The big question: is this a massive overreaction? While DeepSeek’s innovations are impressive, all those pricey, shiny new NVIDIA GPUs are still critical—not just for training new AI models but for the equally expensive process of inference (responding to prompts). This might be one of the best times to “buy the dip,” though only time will tell.
The other question arises: can we trust DeepSeek? The answer is complicated. Like most AI models, anything you feed into the system—your prompts, documents, or data—becomes owned by DeepSeek, on Chinese servers and subject to China’s law, with its notoriously weak intellectual property protections. My advice is, it’s ok to play and test, but avoid feeding it private business data.
Before we get into this week’s newsletter, I want to introduce a new format we’re trying out. The goal is to share more thoughts on a wider range of topics while adding in tools and apps I’m currently exploring. Over the coming weeks, we’ll continue tweaking this format, so if there’s something you love or wish we’d add, let me know—I read every email!
I Read the DeepSeek Docs So You Don’t Have To
DeepSeek is shaking up the AI world with two big innovations: skipping the “study phase” (Supervised Fine-Tuning) and using specialized “experts” for different topics (Mixture of Experts). These approaches drastically reduce training costs and make their open-source model rival OpenAI’s $200/month offering—at a fraction of the cost.
📼 Talking Tech: Watch & Learn
Robots.txt: The Web’s Silent Gatekeeper
Ever wonder how websites control what’s searchable? Enter the robots.txt file—a simple tool now at the center of big changes in the AI world. Curious about its growing impact? Check out this video to learn more about how this impacts the future of the internet.
🔗 The Best in Tech This Week
🤗 Hugging Face Expands AI Models to More Clouds
Hugging Face just made it easier to spin up open AI models on third-party cloud providers. Previously limited by AWS and free tier struggles with larger models, this move enables developers to experiment with AI in a more flexible, serverless environment across multiple clouds.
🧠 Meta AI Can Now Use Your Facebook and Instagram Data
Meta’s new memory feature lets its AI model learn about you as you interact with it, simplifying tasks by retaining context—like remembering dietary preferences, such as being vegan. While similar features have existed in other models like OpenAI for some time, what’s different here is that you can’t opt out, and it uses data from your Facebook and Instagram activity to personalize responses.
🏛️ OpenAI Launches ChatGPT-Gov for US Agencies
FedRAMP compliance is the name of the game. OpenAI’s new ChatGPT-Gov is hosted on Microsoft Azure’s FedRAMP-compliant servers, meeting NIST security requirements. This tailored solution simplifies adoption for US government agencies looking to leverage OpenAI products securely.
🎤 The AI Roadshow: Workshops, Talks & Beyond
February 11, 2025 – Automating Business Tasks with Custom AI Agents
February 19, 2025 – AGILE: Empowering Global Disaster Response with Tech
February 25, 2025 – Agentic AI and Conversational AI for Customer Engagement
🛠️ My Toolbox: Podcasts, Pages, and Pixels
🔎 DeepSeek: A new AI model
DeepSeek is rewriting how AI models are trained, using innovative techniques like Mixture of Experts and reinforcement learning. I’m just diving into this one, but it’s already proving to be a fascinating tool for AI exploration.
🖥️ Ollama: For local AI testing
A super handy tool for testing AI models locally on your machine without needing massive cloud infrastructure. Perfect for exploring smaller-scale AI projects or experimenting with fine-tuned models.
🛠️ LlamaIndex: For AI development tools
A toolkit designed to make integrating AI with existing data sources seamless. It’s perfect for developers looking to enhance apps with cutting-edge AI functionality.
🎧 Decoder w/ Nilay Patel: Why CEO Matt Garman is willing to bet AWS on AI
Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman joins us to talk about leadership transitions, big decisions, and the future of AWS.
P.S. Before You Go…
P.S. While TikTok received a 75-day reprieve and rumors swirl about potential mergers or acquisitions, app stores like Google Play and the Apple App Store are no longer allowing you to download the app. If you’ve deleted TikTok and are now regretting it, the black market has you covered—if you’re willing to pay thousands for an iPhone with TikTok already installed.