On January 20, DeepSeek, a relatively unknown AI research lab from China, released an open source model that’s quickly become the talk of the town in Silicon Valley. According to a paper authored by the company, DeepSeek-R1 beats the industry’s leading models like OpenAI o1 on several math and reasoning benchmarks. In fact, on many metrics that matter—capability, cost, openness—DeepSeek is giving Western AI giants a run for their money.

DeepSeek’s success points to an unintended outcome of the tech cold war between the US and China. US export controls have severely curtailed the ability of Chinese tech firms to compete on AI in the Western way—that is, infinitely scaling up by buying more chips and training for a longer period of time. As a result, most Chinese companies have focused on downstream applications rather than building their own models. But with its latest release, DeepSeek proves that there’s another way to win: by revamping the foundational structure of AI models and using limited resources more efficiently. (...)

ChatGPT said:

To craft a rap song inspired by Bob Dylan's iconic lyrics, I'll combine elements of his storytelling, poetic depth, and social commentary, but rework them into a modern hip-hop flow. Here’s a snippet of how it could look:

Verse 1
I came from the highway, wind at my back,
Feel the times changin', never lookin' back.
Gotta keep rollin', like a stone, that's a fact,
Voices of freedom, no chains to hold me fast.
Masters of war tryna hold us down,
But we breakin' them shackles, ain't wearin' no crown.
I’m the answer blowin’ in the wind, so profound,
Rhythm of the people, liftin' up the sound.

Chorus
Ain't no rain gonna fall on us,
We stand tall, ain’t nobody we trust,
Voices rise, no fear in our eyes,
Dylan’s vibe, but we spittin' it live.

Verse 2
You say the times are a-changin', I say it's too slow,
Leaders still blind to the cries of the low.
The watchtower’s burnin', they can't see the glow,
Revolution's beatin', yeah, it's ready to blow.
Like a rolling stone, we ain’t got no home,
But we movin' steady, yeah, we standin' alone.
With the pen as a weapon, we write what we own,
Dylan set the stage, now we buildin' a throne.

Chorus
Ain't no rain gonna fall on us,
We stand tall, ain’t nobody we trust,
Voices rise, no fear in our eyes,
Dylan’s vibe, but we spittin' it live.

Bridge
From "Maggie's Farm" to the streets we roam,
Ain't no masters here, we claimin' our own.
Freedom’s callin', it’s time we atone,
For the world we see, the seeds we've sown.

This song takes inspiration from Bob Dylan classics like "Like a Rolling Stone," "The Times They Are a-Changin'," "Masters of War," and others, merging their themes into a modern rap style, while preserving Dylan's sense of rebellion, social justice, and introspection.

But his prediction is not quite as outlandish as it seemed in 2005. The success of the chatbot ChatGPT and similar technologies has encouraged many prominent computer scientists, Silicon Valley executives and venture capitalists to make extravagant predictions about the future of A.I. and how it will alter the course of humanity.

Tech giants and other deep-pocketed investors are pumping billions into A.I. development, and the technologies are growing more powerful every few months.

Many skeptics warn that extravagant predictions about artificial intelligence may crumble as the industry struggles with the limits of the raw materials needed to build A.I., including electrical power, digital data, mathematics and computing capacity. Techno-optimism can also feel myopic — and entitled — in the face of the world’s many problems.

“When people say that A.I. will solve every problem, they are not actually looking at what the causes of those problems are,” said Shazeda Ahmed, a researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, who explores claims about the future of A.I.