Soon after US president Donald Trump; announced the Stargate Project offering financial support of $500 billion; towards AI research and development, the world of AI was hit by a bombshell with the announcement of DeepSeek AI model R1. It was designed and built in China by founder Liang Wenfeng, who holds a degree in both Electronic Engineering and Computer Science and is also the current CEO of a hedge fund called High-Flyer. This hedge fund uses AI to analyse financial data to make investment decisions, a process called quantitative trading.
The main reason DeepSeek shook the AI community was by having development costs a fraction of the cost of AI LLMs developed in the USA, despite an import embargo on AI chips that the US imposed on China. AI stocks took a nose-dive after the announcement with company’s involved in AI hardware and software losing as much as 20% of their market value.
Wenfeng was able to perform this miraculous task by stockpiling a huge volume of older generation GPUs over the course of the year and using these to build his AI engine. DeepSeek R1; was released to the public to little fanfare - compared to existing online LLMs – as an opensource AI engine on 20 January 2025.
Despite being open to the public, many world leaders are sceptical of its intentions, with many countries, including USA and Australia, banning its use on government devices and systems, citing a national security risk.
Another bone of contention came from a well-known AI company, OpenAI, whose ChatGPT app fell to second place on the app store behind DeepSeek AI assistant within days of its release. CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, has accused DeepSeek of using OpenAI’s search results to generate its own responses. In the AI world this is known as ‘knowledge distillation’ or simply ‘distilling’ and is a technique where a large and complex AI model, known as a teacher, transfers its knowledge to a smaller, more efficient student learning model. This allows the student model to perform similar tasks to its bigger brother, while being faster and requiring less computational power [read energy].
Altman has said in a statement that “they believe that a Chinese startup called DeepSeek has used proprietary data from ChatGPT to train their own AI model”. He is essentially accusing them of intellectual property theft. I find the irony of this accusation quite humorous as ChatGPT was initially accused of using proprietary information on the web in its own training, a process that Altman has dismissed as being above board.
However this story may pan out, I believe that the introduction of DeepSeek R1; underscores an industry-wide shift towards more cost-effective AI infrastructure.
Women and the future of engineering in South Africa
Editor's Choice
With women making up just 16% of registered engineering professionals in South Africa, AvenirHoldings CEO, Tshidi Mndzebele, is calling on women engineers and graduates to pursue formal professional registration as a key step to unlocking career growth and industry leadership.
Read more...The effect of seasonal changes on ESD performance in South Africa Actum
Editor's Choice Circuit & System Protection Manufacturing / Production Technology, Hardware & Services
Electrostatic discharge performance is influenced by several environmental factors, with relative humidity being one of the most important. This is particularly relevant in South Africa, where seasonal changes can result in significant differences in humidity levels.
Read more...Compact RTK design: More than just the receiver iCorp Technologies
Editor's Choice Telecoms, Datacoms, Wireless, IoT
In practice, engineers building compact RTK products keep discovering the same thing: the hardest component in the system is no longer the receiver. It is the antenna.
Read more...The signal-to-noise challenge in large-scale IIoT Sigfox South Africa
Editor's Choice Telecoms, Datacoms, Wireless, IoT
For much of the last decade, the industrial IoT industry has been driven by a relatively simple assumption: if a little data is useful, more data must be better. That thinking shaped countless deployments.
Read more...Women building South Africa’s power infrastructure
Editor's Choice
As South Africa celebrates Women’s Month in August, women are increasingly taking their place on the factory floor, in technical workshops and across engineering environments, helping manufacture the infrastructure that keeps the country’s electricity network running.
Read more...More efficient production with optimised procurement
Editor's Choice
The smallest part on the BOM is usually the one that holds it up. Interconnect, passive and electromechanical components rarely get attention until they are missing. That is starting to change, and it is reshaping how procurement teams think about risk.
Read more...From the editor's desk: Inspiring the next generation Technews Publishing
News
Welcome to the August issue of Dataweek. Peter Howells is still on leave, so I am back for this issue. I hope you enjoy the content and find value in it.
August is Women’s Month in South Africa, ...
Read more...Locate underground cable faults faster with the Fluke AF2082 A-Frame Comtest
Editor's Choice Test & Measurement
Underground cable faults can lead to costly downtime, service disruptions, and extensive excavation if the fault location is uncertain. The AF2082 simplifies this process by guiding operators directly to the fault point.
Read more...Here is what we learnt from three supply chain crises Seven Labs Technology
Editor's Choice
Component crises are not random events. They follow a pattern. After fifteen years and three major disruptions, Seven Labs knows exactly what that pattern demands, and what it takes to keep production lines moving.
Read more...The new reality of PCB material supply Jemstech
Editor's Choice Manufacturing / Production Technology, Hardware & Services
How resilient manufacturing strategies are helping OEMs navigate a changing global supply chain.
While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained herein, the publisher and its agents cannot be held responsible for any errors contained, or any loss incurred as a result. Articles published do not necessarily reflect the views of the publishers. The editor reserves the right to alter or cut copy. Articles submitted are deemed to have been cleared for publication. Advertisements and company contact details are published as provided by the advertiser. Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd cannot be held responsible for the accuracy or veracity of supplied material.
printer friendly version