The Morning After: The Chinese AI assistant sending shockwaves through US rivals

Obsessed with throwing money and resources at AI in any way they can, the likes of OpenAI, NVIDIA, Google and Amazon all just got a surprise.

Out of seemingly nowhere, Chinese AI assistant DeepSeek is suddenly the top-rated free app on Apple’s App Store in the US and elsewhere, beating more familiar names, like ChatGPT. The open-source DeepSeek V3 model reportedly requires far less computing power than its competitors and, depending on who you believe, was developed for under $6 million. Shocks all around — especially for OpenAI and all the billions it has floating around.

Focusing on coding and research, DeepSeek’s models are similar to other AI assistants you’ve heard of. Its first DeepSeek-R1 release is available under an MIT license, so it can be used commercially without restrictions.

How does it compare with the far pricier US rivals now China is unable to import the most powerful AI chips? Well, to start with, DeepSeek’s founder Liang Wenfeng reportedly stockpiled NVIDIA A100 chips before the US export ban and is pairing those with less powerful chips from China. An MIT Review report also suggests the side effect of the US sanctions are innovations that focus on efficiency and collaboration.

All the attention and a small financial market wobble has put DeepSeek in the crosshairs for “large-scale malicious attacks.” Those cyberattacks mean new user registration may be slow, so if you’re intrigued, you’ll have to wait to check it out.

— Mat Smith

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The iPhone notch might return

A new SE model may almost be here.

Majin Bu

Device leaker Majin Bu shared on X what they claim is the new iPhone SE 4. As proof, they posted a video of the device from all angles and four photos of both a black and a white model from the back. With a single camera (gasp!) and a smaller-seeming body to current iPhones, the big twist is the return to a notch. At this point, all iPhones available from Apple’s store (aside from the iPhone 14) have a Dynamic Island cutout instead of the notch.

Traditionally, the SE series has a throwback hardware design, so this would make sense. And hey, the Pixel 8a needs some competition. While the dummy phones leaked look convincing, Majin Bu has missed with some of their predictions and leaks in the past. So pinch of salt, and all that.

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Here’s a Darth Vader Tamagotchi

With a silicone helmet case.

Bandai Namco

Yes. Yessssss.

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Bluesky’s moderation report shows how quickly harmful content grew

Reports increased 17x compared to 2023.

As X continued to walk the plank, Bluesky experienced explosive growth last year. That meant a big ramp up in its moderation efforts. Bluesky said user numbers jumped from 2.9 million users to nearly 26 million. Its moderators received 17 times the number of user reports in 2023 — 6.48 million in 2024 compared to 358,000 the previous year. The bulk of these reports were regarding “harassment, trolling or intolerance,” spam and misleading content (including impersonation and misinformation). Moderators took down 66,308 accounts in 2024, while its automated systems took down 35,842 spam and bot profiles.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-121642950.html?src=rss https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-121642950.html?src=rss