Plus: AI leaders are sparring over the technology’s dangers
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.
How a top Chinese AI model overcame US sanctions
The AI community is abuzz over DeepSeek R1, a new open-source reasoning model.
The model was developed by the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, which claims that R1 matches or even surpasses OpenAI’s ChatGPT o1 on multiple key benchmarks but operates at a fraction of the cost.
DeepSeek’s success is even more remarkable given the constraints facing Chinese AI companies in the form of increasing US export controls on cutting-edge chips. But early evidence shows that these measures are not working as intended. Rather than weakening China’s AI capabilities, the sanctions appear to be driving startups like DeepSeek to innovate in ways that prioritize efficiency, resource-pooling, and collaboration. Read the full story.
—Caiwei Chen
Useful quantum computing is inevitable—and increasingly imminent
—Peter Barrett is a general partner at Playground Global, which invests in early-stage deep-tech companies
On January 8, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang jolted the stock market by saying that practical quantum computing is still 15 to 30 years away, at the same time suggesting those computers will need Nvidia GPUs in order to implement the necessary error correction.
However, history shows that brilliant people are not immune to making mistakes. Huang’s predictions miss the mark, both on the timeline for useful quantum computing and on the role his company’s technology will play in that future.
I’ve been closely following developments in quantum computing as an investor, and it’s clear to me that useful quantum computing is inevitable and increasingly imminent. And that’s good news, because the hope is that they will be able to perform calculations that no amount of AI or classical computation could ever achieve. Read the full story.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 AI pioneers are clashing over its potential dangers
Yann LeCun, Meta’s AI chief scientist, has branded experts’ grave warnings hypocritical. (FT $)
+ AI’s biggest cheerleaders tend to know the least about it. (Wired $)
+ How existential risk became the biggest meme in AI. (MIT Technology Review)
2 This surveillance tech could enable Donald Trump’s deportation plans
From mass biometric databases to phone jailbreaking tools. (NYT $)
+ It really doesn’t have to be like this. (The Atlantic $)
+ Trump has declared policing the US-Mexican border his “number one issue.” (FT $)
+ He’s ordered the end of the CBP One border migration app. (MIT Technology Review)
3 The European Union is watching Big Tech like a hawk
It’s concerned about disinformation spreading ahead of next month’s German election. (Bloomberg $)
4 Trump’s meme coins are bad news for the crypto industry
The community was hoping the President would legitimize cryptocurrency, rather than leaning into its scammier side. (WP $)
+ It’s a blow to the fans hoping he’ll ‘make Bitcoin great again.’ (The Guardian)
+ Trump’s biggest supporters stand to lose the most from his crypto grift. (Vox)
5 AI is helping to pin down what caused the Los Angeles wildfires
Determining the truth could take months. AI is speeding that process up. (Wired $)
6 Elon Musk’s gaming skills are under fire
Hardcore gamers are questioning how he was seemingly playing during Trump’s inauguration. (NYT $)
7 The European Medicines Agency has had enough of X
And has moved to Bluesky instead. (Reuters)
8 Vietnam is deploying robots to help run its postal service
Including delivering parcels and sorting packages in warehouses. (Rest of World)
9 Startups are in for a rough year
Thousands of companies were funded between 2020 and 2021. Now, plenty are shutting down. (TechCrunch)
+ Gaming startups in the UK are struggling for cash. (BBC)
10 A newly-discovered asteroid turned out to be Musk’s Tesla Roadster
The car and its mannequin driver have been floating in space since 2018. (USA Today)
+ The world’s next big environmental problem could come from space. (MIT Technology Review)
Quote of the day
“I think within five years, nobody in their right mind would use them anymore.”
—Yann LeCun, Meta’s chief AI scientist, says he believes that the technologies powering the current wave of large language models will soon become obsolete, TechCrunch reports.
The big story
How culture drives foul play on the internet, and how new “upcode” can protect us
August 2023
From Bored Apes and Fancy Bears, to Shiba Inu coins, self-replicating viruses, and whales, the internet is crawling with fraud, hacks, and scams.
And while new technologies come and go, they change little about the fact that online illegal operations exist because some people are willing to act illegally, and others fall for the stories they tell.
Ultimately, online crime is a human story. But why does it work, and how can we protect ourselves from falling for such schemes? Read the full story.
—Rebecca Ackermann
