DeepSeek training a 2-trillion-parameter new model, Alibaba says an omni-modal model will arrive within three years, and Musk's AI employee has been live for a month, users top 400,000.
The Information reports that DeepSeek is currently training a new model of roughly 2 trillion parameters. At a recent investor meeting, Liang Wenfeng said the company's next step is to push parameters to 8 trillion. A year ago, that number only appeared in discussions. Parameters (the number of adjustable knobs inside a model) getting bigger directly maps to two things: training needs more GPUs and more power; and answering a single question costs more. DeepSeek previously built its developer reputation on low prices and open source — going ultra-large means reordering the priorities between cheap and strongest. Ordinary users won't feel the change short-term; phones still run the current version. Companies building apps should watch two things: whether the next-gen model stays open source, and how the price sheet gets adjusted. These two decide next year's API costs.
At the Yunqi Conference, Alibaba's judgment was: within three years, a native omni-modal unified generation model will emerge, handling text, images, video, and sound in the same model. In the same showcase, director Lu Chuan and his team used AI to recreate a Ming-dynasty disaster scene from 400 years ago — five days start to finish, no sets built, no waiting on actors' schedules. What's saved is the front-end work: scouting locations, building sets, booking people, doing makeup tests. That part used to be billed by the month; now it's compressed to billing by the day. Small content teams can start with short films and ads. Those have controllable budgets and short pipelines — run one through and you'll know if it's worth it.
Bloomberg reports that SpaceXAI's Grok Bot surpassed 400,000 users in its first month. What sets it apart from an ordinary chatbot is that it can act on its own: book trips, send emails, fill out forms — users give it account permissions and it runs the process to completion. 400,000 isn't big for a consumer product, but among "does work for you" tools it's already leading. What really decides retention is another thing: the tasks it finishes for you — do you dare not double-check them? One mistake and users will pull the permissions back. If you want to try it, start with small things: subscription renewal reminders, price comparisons, tidying up email. Don't hand over payment permissions right away — use it for two weeks, see how it behaves when it errs, then decide how much access to give.
Bloomberg reports that World Labs founder Fei-Fei Li publicly called for independent oversight of AI. Her position is blunt: the body regulating this can't both develop and referee — evaluation should go to outside parties. Statements like this have been coming thick and fast lately. Government, academia, and companies are all jockeying to set the rules; the difference is who gets final say. For teams doing overseas markets, these words will turn into concrete actions: whether model evaluations go to third parties, how long logs are kept. Standardize your evaluation process and record-keeping now — it's cheaper than patching it up later.
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