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Welcome Back, AI Geeks!

A lot has happened, and it’s time to stay updated with What’s Up in AI.

Just when we thought the AI race couldn't get more intense, this week completely changed the game. DeepSeek blindsided the industry with R1, then Janus Pro. Nvidia's stock had Wall Street holding its breath, while Alibaba burst back into the spotlight by unleashing Qwen 2.5. Oh, and apparently DeepSeek STOLE from Open AI? You need to know the tea, so let's dive in...

In today’s issue:

🤝 Alibaba’s Qwen 2.5 beats is a threat to DeepSeek, Open AI & Google
🚀 DeepSeek trained it’s model using OpenAI’s Data
🤖 Automate your meeting notes & actionables with Fellow
🧪 Another terrified Researcher at Open AI Quits
⚡ 5 Must-Try AI Tools This Week
📈 What's Trending in AI now
📰 More AI News you need to know

Alibaba shocks the world with Qwen 2.5

What Happened: Alibaba just released Qwen 2.5, a powerful new Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) language model that's turning heads in the AI worldn and surpassing ChatGPT & DeepSeek. The model, trained on a massive 20 trillion tokens, is freely available through multiple platforms including Alibaba Cloud, Qwen Chat, and Hugging Face.

What You Need to Know

• It's smarter about using its computing power, only activating the parts it needs for each task.

• Early tests show it's beating other popular AI models in areas like reasoning and coding.

• The team spent months training and refining it to make responses more helpful and accurate

• It's going head-to-head with other powerful open-source models and holding its own

• Anyone can try it out right now through Alibaba's platforms, and users are reporting impressive results

Why it is Important:
This release is a game-changer in the open-source AI world. By matching or exceeding the performance of other leading models while requiring less computational power, Qwen 2.5 could democratize access to top-tier AI capabilities.

Its efficient MoE architecture shows that we don't need massive infrastructure to build powerful AI models – a breakthrough that could reshape how we approach AI development.

OpenAI accuses DeepSeek of Stealing

What happened:

DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, sent shockwaves through Wall Street on Monday, January 27, 2025, triggering a massive, WAIT FOR IT…. $1.1 trillion market value wipeout within just 30 minutes of the opening bell. The catalyst? Their R1 reasoning model matches OpenAI's O1 in technical ability but at a way lower cost. If you’re not updated with DeepSeek’s latest news, don’t worry, I got your back - CLICK

And now, OpenAI has told the Financial Times that it found evidence linking DeepSeek with China using its model to train DeepSeek.

What you need to know:

• Microsoft has detected large-scale data exfiltration through OpenAI developer accounts in late 2024, potentially linked to DeepSeek which violates OpenAI's terms of service,

• OpenAI claims evidence of "distillation" - a technique where smaller models are trained by learning from larger models' outputs which method could explain how DeepSeek achieved similar capabilities at a fraction of GPT-4's $100M+ training cost.

• “People may think there’s some hidden business logic behind this, but it’s mainly driven by curiosity,” Liang has said.

Why is it important? 

If DeepSeek did use OpenAI's technology without authorization, it reveals a critical vulnerability in how AI IP is protected. It also adds another layer of complexity to the U.S.-China tech relations. These allegations add a new dimension to DeepSeek's market-shaking cost claims. 

How to do Keyword Research With Perplexity AI

If you want more traffic, better rankings, and the right audience for your content, keyword research is key—and Perplexity AI is the perfect tool for it. Why? Because it's fact-based and a GPT(stands for Generative Pre-Trained Transformer).

Here’s a short step-to-step guide on how you can use Perplexity for Keyword Research:

Step1: Get Perplexity AI
Step 2: Install the chrome version.

Step 3: Visit your ideal website if any or search for one that you find suitable.
Step 4: Click on the chrome extension and enter the prompt:
 ‘Give me the lsi keywords from this page’
Step 4: Create a content outline
Step 5: Type the keyword(s) into Google and choose a competitor site.
Step 6: Click on the chrome extension and enter the prompt
 ‘Give me a content outline based on this content’ 

Now you have the best keywords with reference to the best websites for your own website!

Bonus tip → You can even ask perplexity to improve the outline.

WHAT’S TRENDING ON SOCIALS

1. Researcher at Open AI quits, say’s he is ‘terrified’ of AI’s pace of growth.
   

2. Sam Altman posted a selfie with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, hinting at the “next phase” of the companies’ partnership.

3. What really went down with the DeepSeek fiasco & all you need to know about. Click here to watch.

MORE AI NEWS

• Open AI in talks with Softbank to raise funds of $40B, taking it’s valuation at $340 billion (against $157 Billion in October 2024)

• DeepSeek releases Janus: DeepSeek releases Janus, an open-source multimodal AI model, bringing even more competition in the world of AI, this time in image generation.

• Microsoft's TikTok Move: Microsoft revives its 2020 playbook, entering talks to acquire TikTok's U.S. operations amidst growing interest in the social media giant's fate.

• OpenAI's Government Play: OpenAI launches GPT Gov, a specialized AI model designed to streamline government operations and decision-making processes.

• Grok's Evolution: X's Grok 3 hits the market with improved predictive analytics and deeper data insights, challenging established AI chatbots.

• Meta's AI Gets Personal: Meta rolls out new AI features allowing its assistant to remember conversations and access user data across social media platforms turning their chatbot into a digital companion with social media memory.

YOUR PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS OF THE DAY

🖊️ Bulletpen: Transforms spoken ideas into polished written content.

🎵 Tellers: Converts voice recordings and songs into engaging videos.

🛍️ Roundups: Generates product guides to help with buying decisions.

🎯 AdShare: Enhances brand-creator collaborations through AI-powered co-advertising.

✍️ God of Prompt: Gives the best AI prompts for better creativity.

TRIVIA OF THE DAY

That’s a Wrap for Today!

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Stay Tuned! 🤖 
Team What’s Up in AI