Two weeks ago, America thought it was leading the AI race. Then out of nowhere, an unknown Chinese start-up turned the American stock market—and that assumption—on its head. DeepSeek, a Chinese company founded less than two years ago, released a free AI chatbot that rivals the most advanced available open AI products. And they did it despite America’s prohibition on shipping our most advanced microchips to China. America was caught flat-footed, asking how did this happen? And could we actually lose this tech war? Now, if your understanding of computers stops at the term hard drive, don’t worry. Today on Honestly, Bari has two incredible guests, experts on both AI and China, who are going to break it all down for you. Tyler Cowen is an economics professor, AI expert, and a must-read writer at his blog, Marginal Revolution. He is joined today by Geoffrey Cane, an expert on China and the author of The Perfect Police State: An Undercover Odyssey Into China’s Terrifying Surveillance Dystopia of the Future. Today, how this happened and what it means. And can America win the AI war with China? Header 6: The Free Press earns a commission from any purchases made through all book links in this article. If you liked what you heard from Honestly, the best way to support us is to go to TheFP.com and become a Free Press subscriber today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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From the Free Press, this is Honestly, and I'm Barry Weiss. Two weeks ago, America thought it was leading the AI race. Then, out of nowhere, a totally unknown Chinese startup turned the American stock market and that assumption on its head.
Yeah, John, we've got a bit of a tech sell-off this morning, and it's being caused by earth-shattering developments in the AI space. So let's take a look at this. Did you see the Dow? Down more than 140 points. On track for one of its worst days in the past two years. And here's why.
DeepSeek, a Chinese company founded less than two years ago, released a free AI chatbot that rivals the most advanced available open AI products.
Let's talk about DeepSeek because it is mind-blowing and it is shaking this entire industry to its core.
And they did it despite America's prohibition on shipping our most advanced microchips to China.
Buzz started growing about DeepSeek's latest AI model being more efficient while running on a lot less, a lot less advanced NVIDIA chips. Released last week, it's already being called what is a major breakthrough, as the app shows. It's work, it's reasoning.
I mean, this tech route and massive market sell-off, it's a wake-up call. It is for me.
America was caught flat-footed, asking, how did this even happen? And could we actually lose this tech war? Now, if your understanding of computers stops at the word hard drive, don't worry. I have two incredible guests, experts on both AI and China, who are going to break it all down for you.
Tyler Cowen is an economics professor, an AI expert, and a must-read writer at his blog Marginal Revolution. He is the author of over a dozen books, but frankly, I've lost count. He is joined today by Jeffrey Cain, an expert on China and the author of The Perfect Police State, an undercover odyssey into China's terrifying surveillance dystopia of the future.
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