From First Principles FFP EP. 9 | China’s AI Breakthrough, Time Crystals, Hidden Viruses, & Brightest Cosmic Signal
Sep 23, 2025
Dive into the intriguing world of China's AI advancements with the DeepSeek model, highlighting its implications on global tech rivalries. Explore the fascinating concept of time crystals now visible at room temperature, and discover their potential applications in cryptography. Uncover the hidden viruses within our DNA and their significance in developing therapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases. Finally, learn about the brightest fast radio burst ever detected, unraveling cosmic mysteries with cutting-edge telescopes.
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China's Open Science AI Strategy
- China published peer-reviewed DeepSeek papers showing training techniques and costs openly.
- Open-weight models can shift geopolitical AI dynamics and accelerate global innovation.
Software Innovation Undercut Hardware Choke Points
- Hardware export controls pushed Chinese teams to optimize algorithms and training.
- DeepSeek used software and training tricks to reach high performance on cheaper H800 GPUs.
Pure Reinforcement Learning Yields New Reasoning
- DeepSeek used pure reinforcement learning to let models autonomously discover reasoning strategies.
- Autonomous RL can bypass human bias and produce emergent meta-reasoning like 'wait' backtracking.