A Historic Week in AI - Last week marked one of the greatest weeks in AI since OpenAI unveiled ChatGPT causing turmoil in the markets and uncertainty in Silicon Valley.

- DeepSeek R1 makes Silicon Valley quiver.
- OpenAI release Operator
- Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking
- Trumps' Stargate

DeepSeek R1 Shakes Silicon Valley

Chinese hedge fund High Flyers and Liang Wenfeng unveiled DeepSeek-R1, a groundbreaking open-source LLM model as powerful as OpenAI's O3, yet trained at a mere $5.58 million. The model's efficiency challenges the belief that advanced AI requires enormous GPU resources or excessive venture capital. Following the release, NVIDIA’s stock fell 18%, underscoring the disruption. While the open-source nature of DeepSeek earned admiration, concerns emerged about data privacy, with allegations of keystroke monitoring on Chinese servers.

OpenAI Operator: A New Era in Agentic AI

OpenAI introduced Operator, a revolutionary autonomous AI agent capable of performing web-based tasks such as booking, shopping, and navigating online services. While Operator is currently exclusive to U.S. users on the Pro plan ($200/month), free alternatives like Open Operator are available. This breakthrough enhances AI usability in real-world workflows.

Gemini 2.0 and Flash Thinking by Google

Google DeepMind’s Gemini 2.0 update further propels the "agentic era" of AI, integrating advanced reasoning, multimodal capabilities, and native tool use for AI agents. The latest Flash Thinking feature improves performance, transparency, and reasoning, rivaling premium models. Google also expanded AI integration in Workspace tools, enabling real-time assistance and automated summaries. OpenAI responded by enhancing ChatGPT’s memory capabilities and finalizing the O3 model to remain competitive.

Trump's Stargate: The Largest AI Infrastructure Project

President Donald Trump launched Stargate, a $500 billion AI infrastructure initiative. Backed by OpenAI, Oracle, SoftBank, and MGX, the project includes building a colossal data center to bolster U.S. AI competitiveness. The immediate $100 billion funding is expected to create 100,000 jobs. Key collaborators include Sam Altman (OpenAI), Masayoshi Son (SoftBank), and Larry Ellison (Oracle), with partnerships from Microsoft, ARM, and NVIDIA, signaling a major leap for AI in the United States.