Rolling in the DeepSeek

It seemed everyone had AI on the brain last week.

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It started when I flipped on the news Monday morning and each and every channel and stream I follow was talking about one product: DeepSeek.

At first, I heard it as “Deep State,” which is par for the course these days.

Then it sounded like “deep six,” so I knew someone was in trouble and it turned out it was a bunch of tech giants from OpenAI to Nvidea to all platforms in between.

It was all because a Chinese team had figured out how to answer our questions about things like explaining quantum physics at a 6th grade level, to more complex computer coding questions, to identifying all of the colleges of NFL players on a given offensive line —all at a cost that’s 25 times cheaper per query. (That stat came from Gemini, btw.)

It was the Gartner Hype Cycle — from excitement to disappointment — in a week.

I didn’t download or use DeepSeek. The Chinese have enough of my data from TikTok.

Meantime, the AI conversations coursed through all conversations during the week.

I helped my friend George Tannenbaum bolster an emotional and elegant brand manifesto by having OpenAI add some data points. (This was an experiment and he seemed to like it.)

I spoke with a screenwrtier friend of mine who uses AI to analyze scenes he’s written. He will take the scene, explain how it fits in the story, and then ask AI: “How would ________ critique this scene?” (And then he picks a different genius to be his “professor” be it Alfred Hitchcock, Quentin Tarantino or the Coen Brothers.)

Lastly, I spoke to one of my coaching clients who is using AI to help with her Angel and Series A, B, C investing. One of the ways she uses AI (and she’s ok with me telling you this) is that she asks various AI platforms about which sectors and companies have filed for patents at the US Patent office. The info is public, yet the AI scrapes and organizes the info in seconds. She can then follow up and find her investment targets. (Here’s a tip: “Med Tech” is hot!)

So why am I telling you this? How can this help?

Well, I was struck by all the inventive ways people are using A.I. And it reminds me of something my old boss, Lee Clow, once said to me.

“Technology is nothing until it’s in the hands of the artists.”

So, what can you create with A.I?

Image: Midjourney