The three letters missing from this headline could refer to one of America's most popular four letter words. But as anyone who follows the tech industry knows, today's market is in DeepSeek. What's the deal? Over the weekend, a relatively new Chinese AI startup called DeepSeek demonstrated an artificial intelligence model that operates for a fraction of the cost of the ones we've been using (and investing in). "DeepSeek’s emergence may offer a counterpoint to the widespread belief that the future of AI will require ever-increasing amounts of power and energy to develop." It also appears to be offering a counterpoint to the belief that America is ahead in AI development and that the stock prices for companies like Nvidia have nowhere to go but up. Bloomberg (Gift Article): What Is China’s DeepSeek and Why Is It Freaking Out the AI World? FWIW, I asked ChatGPT about DeepSeek and the impact on the stock market and it didn't seem to know what I was talking about. "It sounds like you're referring to 'DeepSeek,' but l'm not sure exactly what specific entity or event you mean by that."
+ "The Chinese A.I. company DeepSeek has made waves by matching the abilities of cutting-edge chatbots while using a fraction of the specialized computer chips that leading A.I. companies rely on. That has prompted investors to rethink the large returns implied by the heady valuations of companies like Nvidia, whose equipment powers the most advanced A.I. systems, as well as the enormous investments that companies like Google, Meta and OpenAI are making to build their A.I. businesses." NYT (Gift Article): Stocks Sink as Investors Worry About China’s A.I. Advances.
+ Is DeepSeek being totally honest about its cost of doing business? We might not know for sure. But what we do know for sure is that investors and techies weren't entirely sure they were making smart bets when it comes to AI. Hence the reaction to the DeepSeek news. "When lots of people are worried about bubble valuations in stocks or a specific sector, all it takes is a small poke to make the whole thing wobble precariously. Why it matters: That can cost investors $1 trillion or more in a single day, as happened Monday with the global AI rout." The anatomy of a bubble bursting.
Keeping up with all of Trump's week one moves was hard. This NYT (Gift Article) piece places many of the moves in context. The context is revenge. In Exacting Retribution, Trump Aims at the Future as Well as the Past. "Taken together, the moves send a clear signal that Mr. Trump feels unconstrained about punishing the disloyal, that he is potentially willing to go further against his enemies than he had pledged on the campaign trail and that there will be a price for any opposition to come."
+ "Hegseth, just days after his historically narrow confirmation vote, promised to roll back diversity programs, use the military to block migrants from entering the United States illegally and hold the Biden administration accountable for perceived foreign policy failures. He begins his assignment as what the White House has lauded as a long-overdue 'disrupter.'" Pete Hegseth, Trump’s Pentagon ‘disrupter,’ vows swift action. The confirmation of the wildly flawed and inexperienced Hegseth marked another sad moment in a nauseating national slide, but I should focus on areas of common ground. As soon as I heard Hegseth was confirmed, I got drunk. It's worth noting that Mitch McConnell was one of the three GOP senators to vote against Hegseth. That's how far the GOP has shifted. Mitch McConnell is now a moderate.
+ Trump Dump: Trump administration launches nationwide immigration enforcement blitz (Note the initial focus on blue cities/states). White House says Colombia agrees to take deported migrants after Trump tariff showdown. (Keep in mind that Colombia has taken deported migrants before. What they balked at was how the deported migrants we're been treated and transported.) Could there be an image more representative of 2025 America than Dr Phil filming migrant arrests? Trump's firing of independent watchdog officials draws criticism. (Criticism isn't going to stop moves like this, even when they're unlawful.) And, over the weekend, Trump made the poorly received suggestion that we move Gaza-based Palestinians to neighboring countries and "just clean out that whole thing." (Interrupting Kamala rallies was the most backwards protest movement in the history of protest movements.)
Holocaust Remembrance Day is hitting different in Europe as several countries are facing the rise of far right parties. It doesn't help that the richest person in the world is a major booster. "With less than a month to go before Germany holds a general election, Mr. Scholz, his likely successor, Friedrich Merz, and other mainstream German politicians are scrambling to curb support for Alternative for Germany, a hard-right party known as AfD that is widely seen as a dangerous throwback to the nationalism that brought Hitler to power in the 1930s. At an election rally on Saturday in eastern Germany, AfD politicians and Elon Musk, a top adviser to President Trump, who spoke by video link, urged Germans not to feel guilty for the Nazi-era crimes of their grandparents." NYT (Gift Article): At Auschwitz, a Solemn Ceremony at a Time of Rising Nationalism.
+ Anne Applebaum in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Europe’s Elon Musk Problem. "Although it’s easy to get distracted by the schoolyard nicknames and irresponsible pedophilia accusations that Elon Musk flings around, these are the real questions posed by his open, aggressive use of X to spread false information and promote extremist and anti-European politicians in the U.K., Germany, and elsewhere. The integrity of elections—and the possibility of debate untainted by misinformation injected from abroad—is equally challenged by TikTok, the Chinese platform, and by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, whose subsidiaries include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads."
+ Bill Gates calls Elon Musk’s embrace of far-right politicians abroad ‘insane shit’.
I still cover the news, but I spend every other minute drowning it out by watching sports. After a long NFL season (especially for us 49er fans), the SuperBowl matchup is set between the Eagles and the Chiefs. And the big story is Kansas City's quest for an unprecedented three-peat. Patrick Mahomes should now be referred to as a Mahoming Pigeon. He always finds his way back the Super Bowl. (As if this era wasn’t horrific enough, now god is going to make me root for the Eagles.)
+ Before Bills' fans even had a chance to shed a tear, employees in a small factory in Ada, Ohio were already making the balls for America's biggest game. Super Bowl footballs are ready to go within hours of the matchup being set.
+ As amazing as it is that the Chiefs made it back to this game, how they did it is even more amazing. "The AFC championship game gave the Chiefs 17 consecutive victories in contests decided by one score, a probabilistic anomaly that cannot be dismissed as a fluke. In the moments that decide games and determine legacies, the Chiefs have consistently delivered." The Chiefs have conquered the NFL by sustaining the unsustainable. (Which is even more impressive considering the new administration outlawed sustainability.)
+ In other sports news (maybe we should just do all sports in this newsletter?), Madison Keys played the long game and won her first tennis major after more than a decade of trying. And she did it by beating the best players in the world. Madison Keys’ Australian Open championship run was too good to be true, then it happened. Meanwhile, Janik Sinner looked unstoppable in his demolition of the field including fellow finalist Alexander Zverev. But he may be stopped for a drug violation that he had been previously cleared of. Jannik Sinner's defiant move as World No.1 faces suspension after Australian Open triumph.
When It Rains, It Pours: "As much needed rain falls across Los Angeles and Ventura Counties and gives firefighters relief from ongoing wildfires, officials are warning residents of hazardous waste, toxic ash runoff and mudslides."
+ Maximum Minerals: "It's endowed with the eighth largest reserves of so-called rare earth elements, which are vital for making everything from mobile phones to batteries and electric motors. It also has large amounts of other key metals, such as lithium and cobalt." Oh, it has oil and gas too. To understand all the talk about Greenland, go inside the race for Greenland's mineral wealth.
+ Bird's Eye View: "When bird flu first struck dairy cattle a year ago, it seemed possible that it might affect a few isolated herds and disappear as quickly as it had appeared. Instead, the virus has infected more than 900 herds and dozens of people, killing one, and the outbreak shows no signs of abating. A human pandemic is not inevitable, even now, more than a dozen experts said in interviews. But a series of developments over the past few weeks indicates that the possibility is no longer remote." NYT (Gift Article): ‘A Dangerous Virus’: Bird Flu Enters a New Phase.
+ Inflation Ration: "Food banks across the nation are seeing a similar story: A post-pandemic wave of demand for food driven by working people caught in America’s cost-of-living crunch." Working Americans Turn to Food Banks as Fed Inflation Battle Drags On. And those egg prices? They're not coming down anytime soon.
+ Stunt Doubletake: NY Mag gives you a look at The Third Annual Stunt Award Nominees. (In 2025, opening more than 50 news tabs should definitely qualify.)
+ Ladies and Gentlemen... For some fun, check out Questlove’s Fantastic Video Mix of 50 Years of SNL Music.
PETA Suggests Replacing Punxsutawney Phil on Groundhog Day with a 'Weather Reveal' Cake. (Ever have a feeling we're never gonna win another election...?)
+ Prehistoric 66-million-year-old Vomit Found In Denmark.
