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It's the Brian Laird Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. So have you heard about Deep Seek yet?

Deep Seek, China's answer to chat GPT. This month, a Chinese tech startup launched DeepSeek R1, a free open source AI model that holds its own and in some cases

surpasses, according to the reviews, the functionality of OpenAI's chat GPT. Its release spurred panic

in the U.S. stock market. You've probably heard about that if you haven't been affected by it,

erasing more than a trillion

dollars in market capitalization as spooked investors rapidly sold their shares of many

leading tech companies. But to understand this moment, here's a historical reference.

October 4th, 1957. Do you know that date? That was when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik,

Earth's first artificial satellite into space. From that point on, Cold War tensions between

the United States and the Soviet Union escalated into space as both nations saw technological

developments as indicators of their global influence,

and the so-called space race was on.

So why discuss Sputnik in this context?

Well, much of the news surrounding Deep Sea has referred to this development as China's Sputnik moment.

Have you heard that?

China was seen to be years behind the United States,

like the Soviet Union was back then, when it comes to tech, particularly AI. And just last week,

President Trump had signed a $500 billion deal with Open AI, Oracle, and SoftBank to create something

called Stargate,

a company focused on building AI infrastructure in the United States.

The investment is seen as necessary, according to a policy statement put out by OpenAI,

...