Dear all, just wanted to share that at DiPLab, we published a policy memo (the first in a new series), looking at DeepSeek, that new Chinese AI sensation claiming to match ChatGPT at 1% of the cost.
This document, co-authored with Thomas Le Bonniec (Institut Polytechnique de Paris) and Julian Posada (Yale Univesity), includes background, analysis of the documentation made accessible by the company, and policy recommendations. Take a look + would love to hear your thoughts: https://diplab.eu/diplab-releases-first-policy-memo-the-human-cost-of-deepseek/ Here is an excerpt : "While public discourse has centered on DeepSeek’s technical achievements, our investigation uncovers a crucial factor in its success: an extensive network of government-subsidized data labor. Chinese policy initiatives have strategically established data-annotation hubs throughout the country’s “tier 3” cities, offering substantial tax breaks and financial incentives to companies willing to maintain large workforces of data labelers. The company’s public narrative presents these workers as expert researchers, even suggesting that the CEO personally participates in data labeling activities. DeepSeek claims to operate with a mere 32 annotators—a number that raises significant questions when compared to the scale of data processing required for large language model development." Buona lettura, ---a -- Antonio A. Casilli Professor, Institut Polytechnique de Paris My new book: Waiting for Robots. The Hired Hands of Automation, University of Chicago Press, 2025. My new documentary: In the Belly of AI, Federation Studios, 2025. *We respect your right to disconnect. My workflow efficiency accounts for the timing of this email. Taking action or responding outside of office hours is not required.*
