There are many big questions about the impact of the efficiency gains from the improved DeepSeek methods.
Deepseek improved the Reinforcement learning.
Deepseek also directly accessed the Nvidia chips. They did NOT use Nvidia CUDA. CUDA was preventing them from doing what they needed to do with the chips.
The Deepseek research paper gave a list of recommendations to Nvidia on how Nvidia needs to improve CUDA.
The cost of innovation is decreasing.
I don't have too too much to add on top of this earlier post on V3 and I think it applies to R1 too (which is the more recent, thinking equivalent).
I will say that Deep Learning has a legendary ravenous appetite for compute, like no other algorithm that has ever been developed… https://t.co/mX5kiQEJPX
— Andrej Karpathy (@karpathy) January 27, 2025
This report is long but very good.
“With R1, DeepSeek essentially cracked one of the holy grails of AI: getting models to reason step-by-step without relying on massive supervised datasets. Their DeepSeek-R1-Zero experiment showed something remarkable: using pure reinforcement…
— Chamath Palihapitiya (@chamath) January 26, 2025
Several important questions/comments come to my mind as I read more about DeepSeek. Listing them here:
1) Let’s give 1% probability to all the conspiracy theories upfront so we can address it and move on. If it is possible for China/Chinese companies to use shell companies in… https://t.co/x7O28jc4gW
— Chamath Palihapitiya (@chamath) January 26, 2025
An obvious, “we are so back” moment in the AI circle somehow turned into “it’s so over” in mainstream.
> unbelievable shortsightedness
> the power of o1 in the palm of every coder’s hand to study, explore, and iterate upon
> ideas compound
> the rate of compounding accelerates…— Jim Fan (@DrJimFan) January 27, 2025
Whether you like it or not, the future of AI will not be canned genies controlled by a "safety panel". The future of AI is democratization. Every internet rando will run not just o1, but o8, o9 on their toaster laptop. It's the tide of history that we should surf on, not swim… pic.twitter.com/VPmgV8wR1C
— Jim Fan (@DrJimFan) January 24, 2025
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.
Do you think the Chinese banks that funded DeepSeek might have shorted Nvidia just before the release of DeepSeek?
That was a brilliant move by China. Brilliant. Trump and his America first policy – look only to own interest, pay us in comparison with China giving deepseek r1 to everybody for free, benefits for all. Great way to do it.
Yeah sure. China never puts its own interests first. China also gave the world Covid for free. So nice of them.
I didnt say China is perfect, far from it. But this move was not bad, hate it or like it.
it just pardoned Fauci sponsoring the China Covid lab. Weird bedfellows!