DeepSeek releases open-source R1
PLUS: Humanoid robots begin assembling iPhones
Good morning, AI enthusiasts. Open-source AI just hit a major milestone with DeepSeek's new reasoning model matching ChatGPT's capabilities on key benchmarks.
In a twist of irony, it's a Chinese company — not "Open"AI — that's sharing everything openly while offering API access at just 5-10% of the cost.
Before we get into it: Our next live workshop on creating AI agents for meeting prep is today at 2:15 PM EST! Scroll to the community section of this email for details.
In today’s AI rundown:
DeepSeek’s open-source R1 beats OpenAI o1
Humanoid robots assemble iPhones in China
Generate natural-sounding voices with AI
UK’s supercomputer develops AI vaccines
4 new AI tools & 4 job opportunities
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
DEEPSEEK
Image source: DeepSeek
The Rundown: Chinese AI lab DeepSeek just released DeepSeek-R1, an open-source reasoning model that reportedly matches or exceeds OpenAI's o1 on certain benchmarks while costing just 5-10% of o1's API price for developers.
The details:
Unlike traditional GPT models, R1 uses a reasoning approach similar to OpenAI’s o1 that takes longer but produces more reliable results in domains like physics, science, and math.
The model contains 671B parameters but also comes in smaller "distilled" versions, with as few as 1.5B parameters, that can run locally on a laptop.
DeepSeek-R1 beats o1 on several key benchmarks, including AIME, MATH-500, and SWE-bench Verified.
The model is available under an MIT license for commercial use and costs significantly less than o1 ($0.14 vs $7.5 per million input tokens).
Why it matters: Open-source AI just achieved a significant milestone by matching ChatGPT's current capabilities on key benchmarks. And in an ironic twist, it's not OpenAI (which abandoned its original mission of open-source research) but Chinese company DeepSeek, openly sharing its models and training methodology.
TOGETHER WITH VANTA
The Rundown: The ISO 42001 framework empowers AI-driven companies with a clear path to regulatory readiness — helping demonstrate compliance, build operational excellence, and stay ahead of emerging legal requirements in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.
Join Vanta’s live webinar on January 29 to learn about:
Key provisions of ISO 42001 and how it prepares your organization for future AI laws
Insights from Vanta’s experience in achieving ISO 42001 certification
Tools to streamline compliance operations and maintain a competitive edge
UBTECH
Image source: UBTech
The Rundown: Foxconn, Apple's primary manufacturing partner in China, just signed a deal with UBTech to deploy humanoid robots for iPhone production, starting with the Walker S1 robot for complex assembly tasks.
The details:
UBTech's Walker S1 stands 5’6” tall, weighs 167.6 pounds, and is designed to handle tasks from quality inspection to component assembly.
The robots have already completed several months of training at Foxconn's factories in Shenzhen.
Initial deployment will prioritize tasks that impact worker health, like heavy lifting and repetitive motions.
UBTech aims to become the first company to achieve commercial mass production of humanoid robots through this partnership.
Why it matters: With Figure's humanoids in BMW factories, Apptronik's in Mercedes, and now UBTech in Foxconn's iPhone assembly lines, humanoid robots rapidly move from viral demos to real production floors. A major shift in manufacturing has begun… and the transition may happen faster than most people realize.
AI TRAINING
The Rundown: Kokoro’s new frontier text-to-speech model allows you to convert your scripts into realistic speech in seconds.
Step-by-step:
Visit Hugging Face and locate the Kokoro-TTS space.
Select your language and preferred voice (look for ★ for stable versions).
Enter your text with natural punctuation for better speech flow.
Adjust speed and trim settings to perfect your audio.
Pro tip: Test multiple voices and speeds - generation only takes seconds. This is perfect for quick voiceovers and audio content.
PRESENTED BY INNOVATING WITH AI
The Rundown: Innovating with AI’s new program, AI Consultancy Project, trains AI enthusiasts with the skills and strategies to capitalize on the rapidly growing AI consulting market – which is set to 8x by 2032.
The program offers:
The tools and frameworks to find clients and deliver top-notch services
A 6-month plan to build a 6-figure AI consulting business
Students getting their first AI client in as little as 3 days
Request early access to the AI Consultancy Project.
AI RESEARCH
Image: AI-generated via Ideogram / The Rundown
The Rundown: The University of Bristol just unveiled Isambard-AI, a $276M supercomputer that uses AI to develop new drugs and vaccines by simulating how molecules interact with the human body at an atomic level.
The details:
When fully operational this summer, Isambard-AI will be the UK's most powerful supercomputer and among the top 10 fastest globally.
The system is already being used to develop vaccines for Alzheimer's, treatments for heart disease, and improved melanoma detection.
Unlike traditional methods, the system can test virtually millions of potential drug combinations, quickly identifying the most promising candidates.
The supercomputer's waste energy will be repurposed to heat local homes and businesses near its facility in Bristol.
Why it matters: While most tech giants are racing to build supercomputers for AGI, the UK is focusing its $276M investment on solving immediate human challenges like disease. With systems like Isambard-AI, AlphaFold, and OpenAI's recent AI model for longevity, we’re entering a new era of AI-powered medical breakthroughs.
QUICK HITS
📸 Frames by Runway - AI image model with enhanced realism and stylistic control
⚙️ Devin 1.2 - Cognition’s updated AI coding assistant with improved context understanding, a browser-based workplace setup, and Slack audio integration
🔥 /extract - Turns any webpage into structured data from a URL and a prompt
📝 Spellar for iOS - AI Conversation companion and note taker in your pocket
📈 The Rundown - Marketing/Media Buyer
🤝 Synthesia - Deal Strategy Director
🔧 Shield AI - Technician, Hardware Test
📊 Luma AI - Controller
Free event - 2/5: AI & Personalization: Progress or Invasion of Privacy? Hear from a Walmart VP on the scalability & ethics of AI personalization. RSVP.*
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted on X that the company has not built AGI and will not release it next month, saying the “Twitter hype is out of control again.”
ByteDance debuted Trae, a macOS-based AI coding tool that offers automated project building and interactive dev assistance with support for both Chinese and English.
Liquid AI introduced LFM-7B, a new language model powered by LFM architecture, designed for enhanced chat capabilities in languages like Arabic and Japanese.
Codeium launched Windsurf Wave 2, an update to its AI-powered development platform featuring web search capabilities, automated learning patterns, improved code execution, and enhanced enterprise features.
Moonshot AI (an AI lab based in China) introduced Kimi k1.5, a new multimodal AI model that achieved SOTA on the short-CoT benchmark and reportedly has “joint reasoning over text and vision.”
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COMMUNITY
Join our next workshop on Tuesday at 2:15 PM EST and learn how to build AI agents for instant pre-call meeting briefs using Lindy AI with Flo Crivello, Lindy's visionary founder and CEO.
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See you soon,
Rowan, Joey, Zach, Alvaro, and Jason—The Rundown’s editorial team
