Summary
The market’s panic over DeepSeek R1 reflects a misunderstanding of AI, much like past overreactions in tech.
Despite claims that DeepSeek’s efficiency gains threaten AI investment, AI demand remains high, particularly in software development.
The release’s timing—amid Davos groupthink and a $500B AI investment plan—amplified market hysteria.
While DeepSeek offers advancements, efficiency gains are expected, and AI still faces key limitations.
Major infrastructure investments will continue, as breakthroughs are needed for AI’s broader usability.
Pretty good article, interesting to take on the more market-centric approach. But it ends on a call to FUD and never really addresses the elephant in the room, the unspoken reason why a bunch of old men who still don’t “get” email are so enthused by a magical mystery box of big tech called AI: because even the possible future existence of useful AI devalues (reduces the cost of) real human labor.
Look at what generative models are doing to art, music, and video industries already. How eager they are to get code writers working. The biggest cost at (almost) any company is the labor. Compenssting people fairly for their time would actually, honestly, mean making them a co-owner and responsible for their share of the labor and it’s outcomes. Those previously mentioned industries require highly specialized, trained, talented laborers to produce good results. That’s the most expensive kind of labor, simply because it’s the rarest. The owner class can and does do everything it can to bring the price of that labor down.
AI is their hail Mary. Even its nascent applications and possibilities are cutting the prices of all kinds of labor. The fact that it can be used to cover over the labor of people in call centers in oppressed countries is even better; it’s one rock that kills so many birds! If people replace search and social media with AI simulations, they can just feed custom tailored propaganda to everyone all the time. Not that they’ll need that for long because the hyper-efficient kill drones will be thinning the masses down to manageable levels soon.
In their wet dreams it replaces all labor with (somehow, imaginarily free) robots. Robots who never talk back or doubt, work 24/7, and cost very little to maintain. That kill on command but never revolt.
Of course here in reality we’re replacing artists with random generators, robots are actually very expensive to maintain and operate, (which is why they’re) replacing labor with prison slave labor, and drones are being operated by drug-addled murderous psychopathic humans (just like every war machine in history).
<sarcastic tone=“whinging cunt”>But china is the problem…</s>