The Geopolitical Landscape of Semiconductors

Our 198th episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news!
Recorded on 01/31/2024

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Hosted by Andrey Kurenkov and Jeremie Harris.
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In this episode:

- DeepSeek releases R1, a competitive AI model comparable to OpenAI’s O1, leading to market unrest and significant drops in tech stocks, including a 17% plunge in NVIDIA's stock. 
 - OpenAI launches Operator to facilitate agentic computer use, while facing competition from new releases by DeepSeek and Quen, with applications seeing rapid adoption.
 - President Trump revokes the Biden administration's executive order on AI, signaling a shift in AI policy and deregulation efforts.
 - Taiwanese government clears TSMC to produce advanced 2-nanometer chip technology abroad, aiming to strengthen global semiconductor supply amidst geopolitical tensions.

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Timestamps + Links:

• (00:00:00) Intro / Banter
• (00:03:01) Response to listener comments
• Projects & Open Source
  • (00:06:26) DeepSeek-R1: Incentivizing Reasoning Capability in LLMs via Reinforcement Learning
  • (00:30:25) Viral AI company DeepSeek releases new image model family
  • (00:34:07) Qwen2.5-1M Technical Report
  • (00:38:32) Alibaba’s Qwen team releases AI models that can control PCs and phones
• Tools & Apps
  • (00:42:09) OpenAI launches Operator, an AI agent that performs tasks autonomously
  • (00:47:37) DeepSeek reaches No. 1 on US Play Store
  • (00:52:17) Alibaba rolled out Qwen Chat v0.2 and Qwen2.5-1M model
  • (00:53:50) Perplexity launches US-hosted DeepSeek R1, hints at EU hosting soon
  • (00:55:31) Apple is pulling its AI-generated notifications for news after generating fake headlines
  • (00:59:00) French AI ‘Lucie’ looks très chic, but keeps getting answers wrong
• Applications & Business
  • (01:02:09) DeepSeek’s New AI Model Sparks Shock, Awe, and Questions From US Competitors
  • (01:07:49) Microsoft loses OpenAI exclusive cloud provider status to $500 billion Stargate project
  • (01:13:00) OpenAI adds BlackRock exec Adebayo Ogunlesi to board of directors
  • (01:15:00) ElevenLabs has raised a new round at $3B+ valuation led by ICONIQ Growth, sources say
• Policy & Safety
  • (01:16:00) Donald Trump unveils $500 billion Stargate Project to build AI infrastructure in the US, promising over 100K jobs
  • (01:20:36) Trump Revokes Biden AI Policy, Signs Executive Order to Strengthen AI Leadership
  • (01:23:20) Anthropic CEO doesn’t see DeepSeek as ‘adversaries,’ but says export controls are critical
  • (01:30:26) Taiwanese govt clears TSMC to make 2nm chips abroad — country lowers its 'Silicon Shield'
• (01:33:01) Outro