The ads are coming to Threads.
The in-kind redemption model is seen as a more efficient option for the spot Bitcoin ETF and should have been allowed from “the get-go,” says an ETF analyst.
According to data from CoinMarketCap, the decentralized physical infrastructure network sector has a market capitalization of over $27 billion.
While Democrats are calling for an investigation into Donald Trump’s potential conflicts of interest on crypto, House Republicans said they would explore debanking claims.
The AI community is abuzz over DeepSeek R1, a new open-source reasoning model.
The model was developed by the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, which claims that R1 matches or even surpasses OpenAI’s ChatGPT o1 on multiple key benchmarks but operates at a fraction of the cost.
“This could be a truly equalizing breakthrough that is great for researchers and developers with limited resources, especially those from the Global South,” says Hancheng Cao, an assistant professor in information systems at Emory University.
DeepSeek’s success is even more remarkable given the constraints facing Chinese AI companies in the form of increasing US export controls on cutting-edge chips. But early evidence shows that these measures are not working as intended. Rather than weakening China’s AI capabilities, the sanctions appear to be driving startups like DeepSeek to innovate in ways that prioritize efficiency, resource-pooling, and collaboration.
To create R1, DeepSeek had to rework its training process to reduce the strain on its GPUs, a variety released by Nvidia for the Chinese market that have their performance capped at half the speed of its top products, according to Zihan Wang, a former DeepSeek employee and current PhD student in computer science at Northwestern University.
DeepSeek R1 has been praised by researchers for its ability to tackle complex reasoning tasks, particularly in mathematics and coding. The model employs a “chain of thought” approach similar to that used by ChatGPT o1, which lets it solve problems by processing queries step by step.
Dimitris Papailiopoulos, principal researcher at Microsoft’s AI Frontiers research lab, says what surprised him the most about R1 is its engineering simplicity. “DeepSeek aimed for accurate answers rather than detailing every logical step, significantly reducing computing time while maintaining a high level of effectiveness,” he says.
DeepSeek has also released six smaller versions of R1 that are small enough to run locally on laptops. It claims that one of them even outperforms OpenAI’s o1-mini on certain benchmarks.“DeepSeek has largely replicated o1-mini and has open sourced it,” tweeted Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas. DeepSeek did not reply to MIT Technology Review’s request for comments.
Despite the buzz around R1, DeepSeek remains relatively unknown. Based in Hangzhou, China, it was founded in July 2023 by Liang Wenfeng, an alumnus of Zhejiang University with a background in information and electronic engineering. It was incubated by High-Flyer, a hedge fund that Liang founded in 2015. Like Sam Altman of OpenAI, Liang aims to build artificial general intelligence (AGI), a form of AI that can match or even beat humans on a range of tasks.
Training large language models (LLMs) requires a team of highly trained researchers and substantial computing power. In a recent interview with the Chinese media outlet LatePost, Kai-Fu Lee, a veteran entrepreneur and former head of Google China, said that only “front-row players” typically engage in building foundation models such as ChatGPT, as it’s so resource-intensive. The situation is further complicated by the US export controls on advanced semiconductors. High-Flyer’s decision to venture into AI is directly related to these constraints, however. Long before the anticipated sanctions, Liang acquired a substantial stockpile of Nvidia A100 chips, a type now banned from export to China. The Chinese media outlet 36Kr estimates that the company has over 10,000 units in stock, but Dylan Patel, founder of the AI research consultancy SemiAnalysis, estimates that it has at least 50,000. Recognizing the potential of this stockpile for AI training is what led Liang to establish DeepSeek, which was able to use them in combination with the lower-power chips to develop its models.
Tech giants like Alibaba and ByteDance, as well as a handful of startups with deep-pocketed investors, dominate the Chinese AI space, making it challenging for small or medium-sized enterprises to compete. A company like DeepSeek, which has no plans to raise funds, is rare.
Zihan Wang, the former DeepSeek employee, told MIT Technology Review that he had access to abundant computing resources and was given freedom to experiment when working at DeepSeek, “a luxury that few fresh graduates would get at any company.”
In an interview with the Chinese media outlet 36Kr in July 2024 Liang said that an additional challenge Chinese companies face on top of chip sanctions, is that their AI engineering techniques tend to be less efficient. “We [most Chinese companies] have to consume twice the computing power to achieve the same results. Combined with data efficiency gaps, this could mean needing up to four times more computing power. Our goal is to continuously close these gaps,” he said.
But DeepSeek found ways to reduce memory usage and speed up calculation without significantly sacrificing accuracy. “The team loves turning a hardware challenge into an opportunity for innovation,” says Wang.
Liang himself remains deeply involved in DeepSeek’s research process, running experiments alongside his team. “The whole team shares a collaborative culture and dedication to hardcore research,” Wang says.
As well as prioritizing efficiency, Chinese companies are increasingly embracing open-source principles. Alibaba Cloud has released over 100 new open-source AI models, supporting 29 languages and catering to various applications, including coding and mathematics. Similarly, startups like Minimax and 01.AI have open-sourced their models.
According to a white paper released last year by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, a state-affiliated research institute, the number of AI large language models worldwide has reached 1,328, with 36% originating in China. This positions China as the second-largest contributor to AI, behind the United States.
“This generation of young Chinese researchers identify strongly with open-source culture because they benefit so much from it,” says Thomas Qitong Cao, an assistant professor of technology policy at Tufts University.
“The US export control has essentially backed Chinese companies into a corner where they have to be far more efficient with their limited computing resources,” says Matt Sheehan, an AI researcher at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “We are probably going to see a lot of consolidation in the future related to the lack of compute.”
That might already have started to happen. Two weeks ago, Alibaba Cloud announced that it has partnered with the Beijing-based startup 01.AI, founded by Kai-Fu Lee, to merge research teams and establish an “industrial large model laboratory.”
“It is energy-efficient and natural for some kind of division of labor to emerge in the AI industry,” says Cao, the Tufts professor. “The rapid evolution of AI demands agility from Chinese firms to survive.”
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.
OpenAI launches Operator—an agent that can use a computer for you
What’s new: After weeks of buzz, OpenAI has released Operator, its first AI agent. Operator is a web app that can carry out simple online tasks in a browser, such as booking concert tickets or filling an online grocery order. The app is powered by a new model called Computer-Using Agent—CUA for short—built on top of OpenAI’s multimodal large language model GPT-4o.
Why it matters: OpenAI claims that Operator outperforms similar rival tools, including Anthropic’s Computer Use and Google DeepMind’s Mariner. The fact that three of the world’s top AI firms have converged on the same vision of what agent-based models could be makes one thing clear. The battle for AI supremacy has a new frontier—and it’s our computer screens. Read the full story.
—Will Douglas Heaven
+ If you’re interested in reading more about AI agents, check out this piece explaining why they’re AI’s next big thing.
What’s next for robots
—James O’Donnell
In the many conversations I’ve had about robots, I’ve also found that most people tend to fall into three camps. Some are upbeat and vocally hopeful that a future is just around the corner in which machines can expertly handle much of what is currently done by humans, from cooking to surgery. Others are scared: of job losses, injuries, and whatever problems may come up as we try to live side by side.
The final camp, which I think is the largest, is just unimpressed. We’ve been sold lots of promises that robots will transform society ever since the first robotic arm was installed on an assembly line at a General Motors plant in New Jersey in 1961. Few of those promises have panned out so far.
But this year, there’s reason to think that even those staunchly in the “bored” camp will be intrigued by what’s happening in the robot races. Here’s a glimpse at what to keep an eye on this year. Read the full story.
This piece is part of MIT Technology Review’s What’s Next series, looking across industries, trends, and technologies to give you a first look at the future. You can read the rest of them here.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Facebook and Instagram blocked and hid abortion pill posts
But Meta denies it’s anything to do with its recent hate speech restriction U-turn. (NYT $)
+ The company’s widespread changes are making advertisers nervous. (Insider $)
+ A contraceptive drug could act as an abortion pill substitute. (The Atlantic $)
2 Donald Trump’s staff are furious with Elon Musk
His decision to trash talk the President’s new AI deal is ruffling aides’ feathers. (Politico)
+ For once, Trump doesn’t seem to want to wade in. (CNN)
+ Stargate’s newest data center will be built in the small Texan city of Abilene. (Bloomberg $)
3 Watch the Trump administration delete agency pages in real time
An agency GitHub records the documents, handbooks and bots as they’re deleted or amended. (404 Media)
4 Central Europe’s power grid is vulnerable to attack
Its facilities’ unencrypted radio signals leave it wide open to malicious interference. (Ars Technica)
+ The race to replace the powerful greenhouse gas that underpins the power grid. (MIT Technology Review)
5 OpenAI’s conversion to becoming a for-profit is under investigation
California’s attorney general wants to know more about its asset transfer plans. (The Markup)
+ One major obstacle is determining how much equity Microsoft would hold. (FT $)
6 WeRide has its sights set on becoming a driverless power player
The Chinese company has ambitious plans to expand all over the world. (WSJ $)
+ Meanwhile, Tesla is issuing a safety update to 1.2 million cars in China. (Bloomberg $)
+ How Wayve’s driverless cars will meet one of their biggest challenges yet. (MIT Technology Review)
7 How fungi spores can help save endangered plants
But it’s a delicate balancing act. (Knowable Magazine)
+ Africa fights rising hunger by looking to foods of the past. (MIT Technology Review)
8 The fight over our tech-addled attention span
It’s not that we can’t focus—it’s what we’re focusing on. (New Yorker $)
9 TikTok is still MIA from US app stores
Opportunists are flogging iPhones with the pre-installed app for eye-watering prices. (Insider $)
10 How random is Spotify’s shuffle, really?
And can algorithms be depended on to deal in true randomness? (FT $)
Quote of the day
“I can’t imagine that I personally can make any difference in their wealth, power or influence. But I can’t be a part of offering them my life and my joy to then turn it back around and make money off of me.”
—Michael Raine, a 50-year old Facebook and Instagram user, explains to the Washington Post why he doesn’t want to contribute to the sprawling wealth of Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg any more.
The big story
How to stop a state from sinking
In a 10-month span between 2020 and 2021, southwest Louisiana saw five climate-related disasters, including two destructive hurricanes. As if that wasn’t bad enough, more storms are coming, and many areas are not prepared.
But some government officials and state engineers are hoping there is an alternative: elevation. The $6.8 billion Southwest Coastal Louisiana Project is betting that raising residences by a few feet will keep Louisianans in their communities.
Ultimately, it’s something of a last-ditch effort to preserve this slice of coastline, even as some locals pick up and move inland and as formal plans for managed retreat become more popular in climate-vulnerable areas across the country and the rest of the world. Read the full story.
—Xander Peters
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ How two enterprising actors staged a daring performance of Hamlet inside Grand Theft Auto 
+ Warning: these movies are dangerous!
+ Madonna released Material Girl 40 years ago this week—and changed the face of pop forever.
+ And finally, what everyone has been dying to know—do dogs really watch TV?
This article first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first, sign up here.
On January 20, his first day in office, US president Donald Trump signed an executive order to withdraw the US from the World Health Organization. “Ooh, that’s a big one,” he said as he was handed the document.
The US is the biggest donor to the WHO, and the loss of this income is likely to have a significant impact on the organization, which develops international health guidelines, investigates disease outbreaks, and acts as an information-sharing hub for member states.
But the US will also lose out. “It’s a very tragic and sad event that could only hurt the United States in the long run,” says William Moss, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.
Trump appears to take issue with the amount the US donates to the WHO. He points out that it makes a much bigger contribution than China, a country with a population four times that of the US. “It seems a little unfair to me,” he said as he prepared to sign the executive order.
It is true that the US is far and away the biggest financial supporter of the WHO. The US contributed $1.28 billion over the two-year period covering 2022 and 2023. By comparison, the second-largest donor, Germany, contributed $856 million in the same period. The US currently contributes 14.5% of the WHO’s total budget.
But it’s not as though the WHO sends a billion-dollar bill to the US. All member states are required to pay membership dues, which are calculated as a percentage of a country’s gross domestic product. For the US, this figure comes to $130 million. China pays $87.6 million. But the vast majority of the US’s contributions to the WHO are made on a voluntary basis—in recent years, the donations have been part of multibillion-dollar spending on global health by the US government. (Separately, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation contributed $830 million over 2022 and 2023.)
There’s a possibility that other member nations will increase their donations to help cover the shortfall left by the US’s withdrawal. But it is not clear who will step up—or what implications it will have to change the structure of donations.
Martin McKee, a professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, thinks it is unlikely that European members will increase their contributions by much. China, India, Brazil, South Africa, and the Gulf states, on the other hand, may be more likely to pay more. But again, it isn’t clear how this will pan out, or whether any of these countries will expect greater influence over global health policy decisions as a result of increasing their donations.
WHO funds are spent on a range of global health projects—programs to eradicate polio, rapidly respond to health emergencies, improve access to vaccines and medicines, develop pandemic prevention strategies, and more. The loss of US funding is likely to have a significant impact on at least some of these programs.
“Diseases don’t stick to national boundaries, hence this decision is not only concerning for the US, but in fact for every country in the world,” says Pauline Scheelbeek at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.“With the US no longer reporting to the WHO nor funding part of this process, the evidence on which public health interventions and solutions should be based is incomplete.”
“It’s going to hurt global health,” adds Moss. “It’s going to come back to bite us.”
There’s more on how the withdrawal could affect health programs, vaccine coverage, and pandemic preparedness in this week’s coverage.
Now read the rest of The Checkup
Read more from MIT Technology Review‘s archive
This isn’t the first time Donald Trump has signaled his desire for the US to leave the WHO. He proposed a withdrawal during his last term, in 2020. While the WHO is not perfect, it needs more power and funding, not less, Charles Kenny, director of technology and development at the Center for Global Development, argued at the time.
The move drew condemnation from those working in public health then, too. The editor in chief of the medical journal The Lancet called it “a crime against humanity,” as Charlotte Jee reported.
In 1974, the WHO launched an ambitious program to get lifesaving vaccines to all children around the world. Fifty years on, vaccines are thought to have averted 154 million deaths—including 146 million in children under the age of five.
The WHO has also seen huge success in its efforts to eradicate polio. Today, wild forms of the virus have been eradicated in all but two countries. But vaccine-derived forms of the virus can still crop up around the world.
At the end of a round of discussions in September among WHO member states working on a pandemic agreement, director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus remarked, “The next pandemic will not wait for us, whether from a flu virus like H5N1, another coronavirus, or another family of viruses we don’t yet know about.” The H5N1 virus has been circulating on US dairy farms for months now, and the US is preparing for potential human outbreaks.
From around the web
People with cancer paid $45,000 for an experimental blood-filtering treatment, delivered at a clinic in Antigua, after being misled about its effectiveness. Six of them have died since their treatments. (The New York Times)
The Trump administration has instructed federal health agencies to pause all external communications, such as health advisories, weekly scientific reports, updates to websites, and social media posts. (The Washington Post)
A new “virtual retina,” modeled on human retinas, has been developed to study the impact of retinal implants. The three-dimensional model simulates over 10,000 neurons. (Brain Stimulation)
Trump has signed an executive order stating that “it is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female.” The document “defies decades of research into how human bodies grow and develop,” STAT reports, and represents “a dramatic failure to understand biology,” according to a neuroscientist who studies the development of sex. (STAT)
Attention, summer holiday planners: Biting sandflies in the Mediterranean region are transmitting Toscana virus at an increasing rate. The virus is a major cause of central nervous system disorders in the region. Italy saw a 2.6-fold increase in the number of reported infections between the 2016–21 period and 2022–23. (Eurosurveillance)
Cornerstone Research says the US Securities and Exchange Commission launched 33 crypto-related lawsuits last year, down from 47 in 2023.
“Bitcoin” wasn’t mentioned once in Trump’s executive order to study a crypto stockpile, so some maximalists fear it could include other cryptocurrencies.
The SEC published a new Staff Accounting Bulletin revoking SAB 121, rules that governed how financial firms should hold crypto criticized by the industry.