It’s been really significant week in AI, with some huge announcements that shook the industry to its core.
DeepSeek made waves by outperforming OpenAI in coding capabilities, NVIDIA felt the market impact, Alibaba unveiled its latest language model, and Microsoft opened up advanced AI features to all users.
DeepSeek Shakes Up The World
DeepSeek’s new coding model has outperformed GPT-4 in several key benchmarks, particularly in algorithm development and debugging efficiency. Remarkably, the Chinese GenAI engine was developed for a measly $5.58 million; a tiny fraction of the development cost of its main competitors.
DeepSeek CTO Zhang Wei explained:
This isn’t just an incremental improvement – it’s a fundamental shift in how AI approaches complex coding tasks.
This unexpected development demonstrates how quickly the AI landscape is evolving, with new players challenging established leaders in specialised domains.
Alibaba Goes One Better
At its Jakarta developer summit, Alibaba revealed its enhanced Qwen 2.5 language model series, with capabilities ranging from 7 billion to 72 billion parameters. “This represents a major step forward in making advanced AI accessible across Asia-Pacific markets,” said Chief AI Scientist Li Chen. The announcement included infrastructure improvements and a new developer support program targeting global markets, particularly in Asia-Pacific regions.
NVIDIA’s Staggering Stock Fall
NVIDIA experienced significant market pressure following DeepSeek’s emergence and wider competition in the AI chip space. Investment analyst Maria Rodriguez of Goldman Sachs noted:
We’re seeing the first real challenge to NVIDIA’s dominance in AI infrastructure. The market is finally pricing in serious competition.
The company’s stock saw its largest single-day decline since the AI boom began – almost $600bn – although analysts remain divided on long-term implications.
Deep Impact at Microsoft
After recent criticism from Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, Microsoft responded by making its Think Deeper feature freely available to Copilot users. The tool, powered by OpenAI’s o1 reasoning model, had previously been limited to premium subscribers.
Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman announced on social media:
Today we’ve made Think Deeper free and available for all users of Copilot.
This now gives everyone access to OpenAI’s world class o1 reasoning model in Copilot, everywhere at no cost.
I urge you to give it a try. It’s truly magical. Think Deeper helps you: pic.twitter.com/nzccl0tdhL
— Mustafa Suleyman (@mustafasuleyman) January 29, 2025
The move gives millions of users access to advanced AI capabilities, from career planning to complex, organisaton-wide problem-solving; suggesting a strategic shift in how advanced AI features are being marketed to business users.
