DeepSeek Diving šŸ³āš“ + The News You Missed

Your AI Product - News Report - February 4th

For those that are new around here, this is an extension of my weekly newsletter where I highlight new and innovative AI products that are worth exploring.


Hey hey!

Happy not-Wednesday, hereā€™s your news in newsletter!

Due to some technical errors This was supposed to land Friday, Jan 31st, and is now in your inboxes Feb 4th šŸ˜…

In this Issue:

  • The DeepSeek Splash šŸŒŠ

  • Your Weekly Industry News Recap

  • The Raise Recap

  • What Iā€™m Reading

The DeepSeek Splash

WHAT IS IT?

Coming out of stealth mode comes a new LLM Challenger: DeepSeek.

Boasting bold benchmark performance, this model was allegedly developed for a fraction of the cost of OpenAIā€™s models on a per iteration basis.

This UI feel familiar? šŸ˜‰ Screenshot of DeepSeek, 2025

WHY IS ANOTHER LLM PLAYER SUCH A SHAKEUP?

  • A new entrant swings hard right out of the gates: New entrants arenā€™t something new to the AI scene - especially not for LLMs. But one that comes in this late in the game swinging this hard is refreshing, and frankly unexpected!

  • The Potential to Shrink Operating Costs vs competitors: Startups and those experimenting with LLMs in their environments are now looking at lower op costs due to DeepSeekā€™s architecture barely requiring flashy GPUs. If this is flexible enough as a model, this can deliver a lot to small teams. On the other hand, can it do anything that the market leaders canā€™t? Not really. Does it make its major components open source Ć -la LLAMA? Yes it does. See for yourself: https://huggingface.co/models 

  • DeepSeek Proves that Reinforcement Learning has a place in LLMs: that Itā€™s the biggest proof that large models can improve their performance dramatically from pure reinforcement learning. Venture Beat covers the basics nicely of what is and why itā€™s impressive. https://venturebeat.com/ai/deepseek-r1s-bold-bet-on-reinforcement-learning-how-it-outpaced-openai-at-3-of-the-cost/ Mind you that even when GPT4 released, OpenAI had tried adding a layer of reinforcement learning to tie bow on their modelā€™s development, and had only noticed minor increases in performance.

After playing around with DeepSeek, Hereā€™s what I thought of it.

This thing has range

I ran this LLM through what I could design as a gauntlet. Coding questions, philosophy, rationales behind decisions, detailed science questions, niche local law, etc.. and it all came back pretty clean. I steered clear of politics due to some obvious statements in the Privacy Policy. (Just so you know

Diving deeper into some obscure Quebecā€™s law structures was no problem at all for this model, itā€™s got link, citation as well as recommendations for further sources. When asked a vague technical question about building a DIY air purifier, I turned on the R1 reasoning features, and I got a stream of consciousness response leading up to my ā€œofficial promptā€ response. Even after further pressing the system by diving deeper into my lines of inquiry, the R1 model impresses in the thoroughness of its responses.

Consistency & Memory Retention were no issue at all.

It reliably remembered conversational context going even 15+ messages deep. Seeing the initial thread of conversation be ingested as part of the R1 ā€œstream of consciousnessā€ was quite impressive.

This is versatile in tone.

My ā€œwritten-as-spokenā€ style caused zero issues in getting results I wanted immediately. Conversations switching back and forth between casual tone and formalities was practically flawless.

DeepSeek Deployability - Inconclusive for all things API

The API creation and Docs were Out of Order when I got to it, so Iā€™m a bit disappointed about not being able to test more granular behaviors. In the same vein, I wasnā€™t able to check if there were any unexpected limitations in the API (think stuff like rate limits and token caps at the API level.

Sidenote for my rapid prototyping folks: I noticed that Bubble.io has launched their 1st party integration API support for DeekSeek, so Iā€™ve made a note to test that out once I can get my hands on some keys.

IN CONCLUSION

With all this being said, weā€™re now in a more honestly global market of LLMs than ever before, and contenders on all sides are (in their own ways) driving towards a more open, more accessible future for AI as a technology. I will think twice when choosing an LLM provider for my side-projects moving forward. This is a beast of a model.

Of Course itā€™s fair to say weā€™ve already seen the tip of the aftermath iceberg for the DeepSeek effectā€¦

 

Your Weekly Industry News Recap

  • Good Medical News! Curvebeam AI Expands with Stryker Partnership: AI-powered medical imaging firm Curvebeam expands to Australia and New Zealand in partnership with Stryker. šŸŒ Read more: Link

  • The API legend veers into AI: Postmanā€™s AI Agent Builder Launch: API development is getting smarter! Postman debuts an AI agent builder to automate API processes. šŸš€šŸ“” Read more: Link

  • Lā€™OrĆ©al & IBMā€™s AI for Cosmetics: AI is transforming beauty! Lā€™OrĆ©al and IBM introduce generative AI for personalized skincare. šŸ’„šŸ¤– Read more: Link

  • CES 2025 Highlights AI Innovations: AI stole the spotlight at CES 2025, from smart home gadgets to self-driving tech. šŸš€šŸ’” Read more: Link

  • The AI Governance Balancing Act (World Bank): How should regulators balance AIā€™s potential with risks? āš–ļøšŸ“œ Read more: Link

  • Snowflakeā€™s AI VC Insights: What are AI-focused VCs looking for in 2025? Snowflake shares insights on startup investment trends. šŸ“ŠšŸ’” Read more: Link

  • Women Leading the AI Revolution: A new dataset identifies the next wave of women shaping AIā€™s future. šŸ‘©ā€šŸ’»šŸŒ Read more: Link

  • AI-Powered Simulation Startups: The future of simulation is AI-drivenā€”see how startups are building smarter virtual environments. šŸŒšŸ”¬ Read more: Link

  • AI & Product Security (Ericsson): Developers, take note! AI is reshaping securityā€”hereā€™s what you need to know. šŸ”’šŸ‘Øā€šŸ’» Read more: Link

  • The Future of AI Product Management: AI isnā€™t just changing how we build productsā€”itā€™s redefining how we manage them. šŸ”§šŸ¤– Read more: Link

The Raise Recap šŸ“ˆšŸ’° 

  • Orchid Security Raises $36M: Orchid secures $36M to enhance AI-driven identity security, making cybersecurity smarter and stronger. šŸ”šŸ¤– Read more: Link

  • Vasco Raises $11.5M CAD: Helping startups manage revenue, Vasco secures $11.5M CAD for AI-powered financial tools. šŸ“ˆšŸ’° Read more: Link

  • MiniMax Unveils New AI Model: Chinese AI company MiniMax secures fresh funding, claiming its model rivals OpenAIā€™s and Googleā€™s. šŸš€šŸ¤Æ Read more: Link

  • Blaize Becomes the First AI Chip IPO of 2025: AI chipmaker Blaize goes public, setting the stage for more AI hardware IPOs. šŸ“ŠšŸ’¾ Read more: Link

  • MetaAI Secures $4M in Seed Funding: NVIDIA backs MetaAI with a $4M investment to expand its AI research initiatives. šŸ¤–šŸ”„ Read more: Link

  • South African AI Startup Taco Raises $1.6M: Taco secures $1.6M to scale its AI-driven sustainability solutions. šŸŒ±šŸ’” Read more: Link

  • Former Google VP Raises $10M for AI Retail Startup: Ex-Google exec secures $10M to bring AI-powered solutions to retail businesses. šŸ›ļøšŸ’” Read more: Link

  • Origami Agents Secures $2M Seed Round: AI-powered sales enablement startup Origami Agents raises $2M to enhance B2B automation. šŸ¤šŸ“ˆ Read more: Link

  • Mitiga Secures $30M: AI-powered cybersecurity firm Mitiga lands $30M to enhance cloud and SaaS security incident response. šŸ”šŸ’° Read more: Link

  • Wyzr Secures $400K in AI SaaS Funding: Wyzr lands $400K following NatWestā€™s fintech demo dayā€”AI-powered SaaS solutions are heating up! šŸ”„šŸ“Š Read more: Link

  • Waterlily AI Raises $7M for Predictive Healthcare: AI-driven long-term healthcare predictions just got a boost with Waterlilyā€™s $7M seed funding. šŸ„šŸ’” Read more: Link

  • Cantaloupe AI Wins Startup Slam: AI-powered automation startup Cantaloupe wins the 2025 Nspire Startup Slam, securing major recognition. šŸ†šŸ¤– Read more: Link

What Iā€™m Reading - A Small Dip Into Futurology

Our current trajectory is to make AI more human-like, but is that really a good thing? šŸ¤” This article dives into the risks of anthropomorphizing AIā€”when we start treating chatbots and virtual assistants as if they have real emotions and intentions, we blur the lines between tool and entity. The problem? People may trust AI too much, overestimate its capabilities, or even form emotional bonds with systems that donā€™t actually ā€œthinkā€ or ā€œcare.ā€ Should AI really be designed to mimic us, or are we walking into a dangerous illusion? šŸšØ

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Stay well, and see you next week!

-āœŒšŸ½ Sam

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