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 DeepSeek ripped up the AI playbook—and why everyone’s going to follow its lead
When the Chinese firm DeepSeek dropped a large language model called R1 two weeks ago, it sent shock waves through the US tech industry. Not only did R1 match the best of the homegrown competition, it was built for a fraction of the cost—and given away for free.
DeepSeek has now suddenly become the company to beat. What exactly did it do to rattle the tech world so fully? Is the hype justified? And what can we learn from the buzz about what’s coming next? Here’s what you need to know.
—Will Douglas Heaven
OpenAI’s new agent can compile detailed reports on practically any topic
What’s new: OpenAI has launched a new agent capable of conducting complex, multi-step online research into everything from scientific questions to personalized bike recommendations at what it claims is the same level as a human analyst.
How it works: In response to a single query, such as “draw me up a competitive analysis between streaming platforms,” the tool, called Deep Research, will search the web, analyze the information it encounters, and compile a detailed report which cites its sources.
Why it matters: OpenAI says that what takes the tool “tens of minutes” would take a human many hours. And it claims it represents a significant step towards its overarching goal of developing artificial general intelligence that matches (or surpasses) humans. Read the full story.
—Rhiannon Williams
DeepSeek might not be such good news for energy after all
In the week or so since DeepSeek became a household name, a dizzying number of narratives have gained steam, including that DeepSeek’s new, more efficient approach means AI might not need to guzzle the massive amounts of energy that it currently does.
The latter notion is misleading, and new numbers shared with MIT Technology Review help show why. These early figures—based on the performance of one of DeepSeek’s smaller models on a small number of prompts—suggest it could be more energy intensive when generating responses than the equivalent-size model from Meta.
The issue might be that the energy it saves in training is offset by its more intensive techniques for answering questions, and by the long answers they produce. Add the fact that other tech firms, inspired by DeepSeek’s approach, may now start building their own similar low-cost reasoning models, and the outlook for energy consumption is already looking a lot less rosy. Read the full story.
—James O’Donnell
What DeepSeek’s breakout success means for AI
If you’re interested in hearing more about DeepSeek, join our news editor Charlotte Jee, senior AI editor Will Douglas Heaven, and China reporter Caiwei Chen for an exclusive subscriber-only Roundtable conversation today at 12pm ET. They’ll be discussing what DeepSeek’s breakout success means for AI and the broader tech industry. Register here.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Elon Musk donated at least $288 million to help elect Donald Trump
Making him by far the US’s largest political donor. (WP $)
+ Some of the engineers carrying out Musk’s efficiency orders are still teenagers. (Wired $)
+ There’s a chance Musk’s team has access to your social security number. (NY Mag $)
2 LGBT and HIV references have been scrubbed from the CDC website
In response to Trump’s executive orders to remove all DEI references. (404 Media)
+ Some vaccine data has also been taken down. (BBC)
+ It’s just the latest step in the Trump administration’s plans to purge the government. (The Atlantic $)
3 Trump’s tariffs are bad news for carmakers
The new rules affect every company that ships goods across the US borders with Canada and Mexico, or uses parts from China. (NYT $)
+ Shares in carmakers dropped drastically following the announcement. (Reuters)
+ The three countries have very different trade war playbooks. (Economist $)
4 OpenAI has released its new o3-mini reasoning model for free
It’s the first time its reasoning models have come out from behind a paywall. (MIT Technology Review)
+ Meanwhile, ChatGPT subscribers have hit 15.5 million. (The Information $)
5 The Pentagon is kicking mainstream media outlets from their offices
Mostly in favor of smaller conservative outlets. (NBC News)
6 AI data center landlords are starting to worry
Perhaps a little prematurely, given the uncertainties over DeepSeek’s implications for energy use. (Bloomberg $)
7 The FDA has approved a new non-opioid pain medicine
For the first time in more than two decades. (Ars Technica)
+ Why is it so hard to create new types of pain relievers? (MIT Technology Review)
8 This AI tool allows you to speak to your future self
Just make sure you take what it tells you with a pinch of salt. (WSJ $)
+ Please stop using ChatGPT to write obituaries. (Vox)
+ Technology that lets us “speak” to our dead relatives has arrived. Are we ready? (MIT Technology Review)
9 Climate change means more rats in our cities
And with them, a higher risk of rat-borne disease. (New Scientist $)
10 AI could point us to how the universe will end
That’s according to Mark Thomson, the next director general of Cern. (The Guardian)
Quote of the day
“Oligarchy is bad enough. But oligarchy with a competitor doing the enforcement is double, triple as bad.”
—Richard Aboulafia, managing director at aerospace consultancy AeroDynamic Advisory, wonders about the ethics of Elon Musk leading efficiency drives at companies that rival his own, the Financial Times reports.
The big story
How tracking animal movement may save the planet
February 2024
Animals have long been able to offer unique insights about the natural world around us, acting as organic sensors picking up phenomena invisible to humans. Canaries warned of looming catastrophe in coal mines until the 1980s, for example.
These days, we have more insight into animal behavior than ever before thanks to technologies like sensor tags. But the data we gather from these animals still adds up to only a relatively narrow slice of the whole picture.
This is beginning to change. Researchers are asking: What will we find if we follow even the smallest animals? What if we could see how different species’ lives intersect? What could we learn from a system of animal movement, continuously monitoring how creatures big and small adapt to the world around us? It may be, some researchers believe, a vital tool in the effort to save our increasingly crisis-plagued planet. Read the full story.
—Matthew Ponsford
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ Why we all stand to benefit from a bit of quiet time.
+ Why New York City bagels are the best in the world.
+ The fascinating science behind getting ‘the ick’, and why it’s worth trying to push through it.
+ Forget the giant squid—it’s all about the colossal squid now.
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