Wall Street is throwing tantrums on DeepSeek.
DeepSeek's R1 is a large language model (LLM), which is basically a cheaper, more efficient ChatGPT, built on a fraction of OpenAI’s budget and using fewer chips than any other leading chatbot.
DeepSeek has created a massive earthquake in the AI sector. Full story here.
Image: Mint.TikTok has become a new front in the rivalry between China and the United States. The US is now ready for a war against a foreign billion-user social media entity, which hosts approximately 170 million American users. This direct clash opens a new front in the ongoing US-China confrontation.
Now, the EU must respond. Full story here.
Image: The Jamestown Foundation.
US stocks dropped sharply on Monday (27 January) after DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence company released its latest version on 20 January. The company claimed its latest AI model was built at a fraction of the cost of industry-leading because it uses fewer advanced chips. Nvidia lost nearly $600 billion. - the biggest one-day loss in US history.
DeepSeek, a one-year-old startup, presented a ChatGPT-like AI model called R1, which has all the familiar abilities, operating at a fraction of the cost of OpenAI’s, Google’s or Meta’s popular AI models. The company said it had spent just $5.6 million on computing power for its base model. You can read here and here.
Image: Hedgeye
In 2015, almost all country in the world signed onto the Paris Agreement. It is a landmark international treaty under which 195 nations pledged to hold the Earth’s temperature to “well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels,” and aim to “limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.”
To hold long-term average temperature to below the 1.5-degree threshold, the world will have to reach net zero emissions by the year 2050.
The recent Los Angeles fires is an example of the irreversible impact of the 1.5-degree climate threshold breached. Further reading available here.
Image: CartoonStock.
Here are what the experts' insights on business trends this year:
This article talks about how it is important to know what role Greenland plays in the Arctic security. There are five distinct theatres involved (climate changes, Chinese navy in the Far East, Russia nuclear strategy in the European Arctic, Russian military capability and Greenland's roles to facilitates radars for domain awareness). A misreading of dynamics across the distinct Arctic theatres will not benefit anyone, and will leave all of us less secure.
According to FocusEconomics, 2025 inflation will average lower than the 2024 CPI inflation rate. Lower prices for food and energy will reduce prices in 2025, though global trade restrictions will increase inflation.
Key factors influencing global inflation in 2025:
Image: Hedgeye
Source: FocusEconomics
Economies across the Middle East and Central Asia are more affected by conflicts in terms of income per capita. Conflicts have huge economic impacts, causing human suffering and lead to food insecurity issues, among others, according to this article.
US president Jimmy Carter signed the Torrijos-Carter Treaties in 1977, which transferred control over the Panama Canal in 1999 to Panama. Now, Trump says he wants it back. Full story here.
The Panama Canal symbolises a route for commerce. It signify the nature of global influence.
Images from around the world from BBC here.
The top four food-countries, by agricultural values, are China, India, the U.S., and Brazil, in that order.
The largest agricultural exporter is the United States.
Country that produce the most food waste - the U.S., UK and China, among others. Full story here.
January 7, 2025. A series of wildfires have affected the Los Angeles area. More than 80,000 people are still under evacuation orders.
Would it be sensible to keep rebuilding in known high-risk areas? What will the new neighborhoods look like? Will fire-resistant materials and designs be used?
Furthermore, planning is underway to host the 2028 Olympics in the area.
According to this article, new constructions should be respectful of Mother Nature.
This article (5-minutes reading) looks at how Trump's tariff policies will impact UK and the global economy. UK's decision to strengthen ties with the US, deepen integration with the EU, or pursue a more independent trade policy will put Uk's post-Brexit trade policy to test.
One thing that divides people is whether they prefer their brownies to be more fudgy or cakey. There is a lot of science behind a brownie recipe.
Have you engineered one?
AlphaFold is an AI system that predicts the 3D structure of proteins from their amino acid sequences. It's used by researchers to accelerate research in many fields, including disease treatments, drug discovery, and environmental protection. You can read here.
The article from the MIT News writes about the Nobel laureate Daron Acemoglu views on how AI’s effect on the economy.
According to him, if technology helps generate economic growth, then fast-paced innovation is good. However, if some technologies contain both benefits and drawbacks, it is best to adopt them more gradually. If social damages are large, a higher growth rate leads to slower optimal adoption.
An excerpt from the article:
“The faster you go, and the more hype you have, that course correction becomes less likely,” Acemoglu says. “It’s very difficult, if you’re driving 200 miles an hour, to make a 180-degree turn.”
AI will affect almost 40 percent of jobs around the world. Hence, advanced economies face greater risks from AI, compared with emerging market and developing economies. Full article here.
Source: IMF Blog
Japan is joining the AI zeitgeist (German for 'spirit of the time') with the aim to be the most AI-friendly country in the world. To accomplish the objective, three policy actions outlined:
1. To establish the most active R&D ecosystem for AI implementation in the world.
2. To minimize AI risks to citizens while maximizing benefits.
3. To strengthen Japan’s industrial competitiveness.
Image Source: The Economist.
Crypto assets and artificial intelligence (AI) are power hungry. Crypto mining and data center now account for 25 of global electricity use and nearly 1% of global emissions. Full story here.
Source: RiskBusiness
G42 is an artificial intelligence firm founded in 2018, and is based in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The company performs AI research and development processes.
Key facts from this article:
Saudi Arabia is working on “Project Transcendence,” to be a leading hub for artificial intelligence (AI) in the Middle East.
With an investment of $100 billion, the project will rival the technological advancements of the United Arab Emirates. It is part of its Vision 2030 framework, moving away from oil-dependence economy. Full story here.
Source: TechChannel News.
Is bigger better? The AI chips war among Nvidia, AMD and Cerebras will hopefully spur further innovation. Key points from this article:
Source: The Economist. Internet.
Cerebras Systems is an AI chip manufacturer that builds “the world’s largest chip”. Its flagship product, the Cerebras Wafer-Scale Engine (WSE), the size of a dinner plate, offers improved training times and simplified AI training methods at lower prices than Nvidia’s industry-standard GPU chips.
Below is a 21-minutes Youtube interview with the CEO, Andrew Feldman.
Feldman completed his Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Political Science from Stanford University between 1987 and 1991. He earned his MBA at the Stanford University in 1997.
According to Forbes, Lisa Su, the CEO of semiconductor firm Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), has led one of the greatest recent turnarounds in the technology sector.
AMD's stock soared nearly 40-fold since Su became CEO in 2014 through early May 2024.
The biggest competitor is Nvidia. Nvidia is run by her distant relative Jensen Huang.
Lisa Su was born in Tainan, Taiwan, in 1969, and immigrated to New York City at age 3.
She went to MIT, earned a bachelor's (and later a Ph.D.) in Electrical Engineering because it seemed to be the most difficult major.
She joined AMD in 2012 and became CEO two years later.
As of February 2024, she is one of just 26 U.S. self-made women and 26 hired executives to accumulate 10-figure fortunes.
Source: Internet.
Source: Youtube (2 minutes).Nvidia designs and sells GPUs for gaming, cryptocurrency mining, and professional applications; the company also sells chip systems for use in vehicles, robotics, and more.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang suggested the name Nvidia, from "invidia", the Latin word for "envy."
Nvidia is redefining the entire virtual experience. Hopefully the tech boom is sustainable and focuses on green technology, as pointed-out by this article.
China’s industrial policy is aimed at rapidly expanding its high-tech sectors and developing its advanced manufacturing base. However, other countries see the plan as a threat. Read the full article here.
In the Japanese and Chinese Zodiac, 2025 is the year of the snake. Here is an article that covers important topics according to the acronym S.N.A.K.E.
S - Security-focused economy.
N - Nebolous outlook.
A - AI related industry.
K - Koreas, North and South.
E - Energy and environment
Here are the latest commodity markets prices and forecasts according to the World Bank. Energy, agriculture, metals and minerals, price indices, Brent prices, natural gas and gold prices, among others. There is also a note on food insecurity conflict.
Non sequitur ("it does not follow") can be responses that have nothing to do with the conversation or flawed conclusions “based” on what preceded them. Non sequitur fallacy example below:
Premise 1: All birds have wings.
Premise 2: That creature has wings.
Conclusion: Therefore, that creature is a bird.
According to this article, Musk and Zuckerberg are promoting a version of free expression that defines censorship purely in terms of state ...
