DeepSeek launched a free, open-source large-language model in late December, claiming it was developed in just two months at a cost of under $6 million — a much smaller expense than the one called for by Western counterparts.

These developments have stoked concerns about the amount of money big tech companies have been investing in AI models and data centers, and raised alarm that the U.S. is not leading the sector as much as previously believed.
The "Western counterparts" are claiming training a model might take years and billions of dollars. This has always been a hyped-up grift, with snake oil salesmen and con artists being showered with money and power. It's really quite amazing how profoundly unintelligent "the market" is in practice.

The sad reality is that the US could lead in this field (1), if we'd stop routinely putting narcissists and con artists in charge and showering them with praise even when they fail.

From https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/27/nvidia-falls-10percent-in-premarket-trading-as-chinas-deepseek-triggers-global-tech-sell-off.html

#AI #GenAI #GenerativeAI #LLM #SnakeOil #hype #grift #MarketCapitalism

(1) Putting aside whether we should, which is an important question.

Longtermism: how good intentions and the rich created a dangerous creed
No one is going to convince me that #Longtermism (or #MarketCapitalism or #NeoLiberalism) can hold a candle to #SocialDemocracy for the benefit of the greatest number of people in the greatest number of countries around the world. It wins on economic grounds, democratic principles and humanitarian values.
And for my most compelling case in point - ladies and gentlemen I give you #ElonMusk
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/commentisfree/2022/dec/04/longtermism-rich-effective-altruism-tech-dangerous?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other