Hello on another tech-ahead Tuesday, friend! Season Two of “Severance” is finally here on Apple TV+. Don’t worry, no spoilers here! The show centers on a mysterious tech company with plenty of twists and turns to keep you hooked. One standout character is played by the iconic Christopher Walken. Here’s a fun fact: At 81, Walken watched the first season on DVD because he doesn’t stream. He also doesn’t own a cellphone; when he’s out and needs to make a call, he borrows a phone from someone nearby. He must have nice friends.

⭐ I’m hoping today’s top story puts the huge news about China’s new AI model into perspective for you. If you learn something, share it with a friend. Thank you! — Kim

I’ve been saying it for years: The country that masters AI will dominate the world economically, politically and militarily. Since ChatGPT dropped, the U.S. seemed untouchable. Most of us Americans assumed we were a couple of years ahead of China in terms of AI, but the game has changed — and fast.

The latest version of DeepSeek AI, an open-source model out of China, is so good, it tanked U.S. tech stock prices (Nvidia lost $593 billion in value!), shot to No. 1 in the Apple App Store overnight and now has the entire world wondering, “If this is what China is showing us, what’s next?”

Move over, OpenAI

DeepSeek was founded in May 2023 in Zhejiang, China. Its first models were nothing to write home about; the latest release, DeepSeek-V3, is another story.

It was developed in just 55 days, trained on 671 billion parameters and performs as well as (or better than) Meta’s Llama, OpenAI’s GPT‑4o and Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 3.5 in math, coding and reasoning. Let that sink in. It took China just two months to beat the American giants.

The money is where it gets really interesting. OpenAI spent $5 billion on its model in just one year. Google shelled out $50 billion on AI development in 2024. Microsoft has invested $13 billion into AI partnerships.

What about DeepSeek? They spent $5.6 million. It’s a cheap Chinese knockoff.

How’d they do it?

China put together a group of young, ambitious, super-smart engineers and researchers who worked under strict limitations. The official story is they couldn’t use Nvidia’s top-tier H100 chips because of U.S. export restrictions. Instead, they worked with less powerful H800 chips.

Rumors suggest China started with over 10,000 super-powered H100 Nvidia AI chips purchased before the Biden administration’s sanctions kicked in. There are also whispers they stole OpenAI’s code as the foundation for DeepSeek‑V3.

But here’s the thing: Even if they took someone else’s code, it doesn’t matter anymore. DeepSeek runs efficiently on far fewer chips, uses less electricity and is cheaper to operate than its American counterparts.

The real game-changer is right here

Most U.S. companies treat AI like a cash cow. For advanced features or running complex tasks, you pay in tokens. With ChatGPT, 1 million tokens cost $4.40. On DeepSeek? Just $0.10.

Powerful AI just became accessible to poorer nations, businesses and individuals at a fraction of the cost. That could mean incredible things for health care, education, agriculture, transportation, finance and the environment.

But it also puts cutting-edge AI in the hands of North Korea, which could use it to develop new cyberattacks. What about state-sponsored hackers looking for creative ways to steal our intellectual property? Drug cartels and scammers could tap into it to create smarter, harder-to-detect schemes. Pandora’s box is open.

Curious about trying DeepSeek AI?

I was, and I’ll tell you, it really is impressive. It’s fast, it’s smart, and its answers beat ChatGPT in nearly every prompt I’ve tried.

Yesterday, DeepSeek got hit by a cyberattack, and new signups were limited to Chinese phone numbers. (I hope it was the U.S. government, really.)

Once it opens back up, you’ll need to be careful if you decide to make an account. This is how I use it:

• Create a separate email address just for using DeepSeek. Do not sign in using your Google account or any other.
• Use it on a separate device, like an old phone or computer you don’t use for anything else.
• Treat everything like public information. Don’t enter anything personal or sensitive to your business.

Of course, China isn’t just exporting the technology; DeepSeek’s views are all state-approved. That means, according to their AI, there’s no info on the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident, and it won’t tell you about internment camps, protests in Hong Kong or anything else the Chinese government doesn’t want you to know.

Anytime you’re using a tool developed in China, assume your data is collected, stored and shipped right back to its government.

But even if you don’t use AI …

Your info is scraped from free sources and purchased to train AI models. That’s why I use Incogni. This service finds all the sketchy people-search and data-broker sites where your personal information is listed and submits requests to remove it. So far, Incogni has removed me from 981 sites and put me on 40 suppression lists.

✅ This is your sign to take back your privacy. I negotiated a 60% discount on Incogni just for you. If you don’t like the results, it comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. It’s a great service.

Boy, will you be thankful if you ever need to use this gear! It’s all about peace of mind.

• Flashlights (25% off) and batteries are both musts.
• A battery-powered or hand-crank radio is perfect in case there’s no cell signal.
• Don’t forget a first-aid kit … which you should already own, really.
• Grab a manual can opener (20% off) if yours is electric.
• Make sure you have a cooler (this one keeps ice for five days!) and lots of ice packs (20% off).
• I like to keep around a solar charger, too. It’s a good time to buy, with this one now 28% off.

💩 You take your phone to the bathroom. Sanitize it the right way! This top-rated UV model gets rid of 99% of germs in 10 minutes.

🚨 A new AI-based hoax: Don’t fall for a news video claiming you’re wanted for a crime. These videos look real, complete with legitimate branding like CNN logos, on-screen text describing the incident with your name and an AI newsreader reporting it. The scammers threaten to share it with your friends and family unless you pay up.

Drones are back: Folks in the Northeast are seeing more mysterious drones since the FAA lifted its temporary ban. Enigma Labs, a research company studying unidentified phenomena, says they’ve received 49 reports this month alone in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia and Pennsylvania. I still say they’re hobby drones pulling a prank.

🚀 Own a piece of SpaceX: Earlier this month, SpaceX tested its Starship for the seventh time, and the upper half of the rocket exploded over the Turks and Caicos. Folks there are finding pieces on the beach and selling them on eBay. Sellers are asking for anywhere from $200 to $5,000 for a chunk of the debris (paywall link).

Age isn’t a number; it’s a word: Several states now require you to verify your age before accessing porn. To do this, you’ll need to upload a government ID, submit a facial scan or other biometric data, or let a third party verify your identity. That sounds great, but these sites store your data, making it vulnerable to hackers and potentially exposing the fact you watched “The Boobyguard,” not “The Bodyguard.”

💀 Dreadful discovery: A Maryland woman went to get a new driver’s license, only to find she’d been declared legally dead. The culprit? A typo that registered her Social Security number to someone who’d passed away. The mistake led to her health insurance being canceled and her medical bills piling up. What a nightmare.

Under the radar: A flaw in Microsoft’s Windows BitLocker encryption system could expose your sensitive data, including passwords in unencrypted form. BitLocker is meant to protect your data if your laptop or PC is stolen by encrypting your hard drive. The fix? Update to the latest version of Windows. PSA: I only work with brands I trust to keep you secure. Hit this page to see the five must-have tools I recommend.

💸 Good news, shoppers: Amazon is now legally required to post recall notices and product alerts on its site. If you purchased a recalled or defective item, whether from Amazon or a third party, you’ll be notified via email, and recall details will be on your orders page or this recalls page.

Tailored advice: Create a “persona” for your AI chatbot when you write a prompt. Pick a role and give some context. For example, “Pretend you’re a graphic designer giving me feedback on my website’s color scheme and branding. What should I adjust?” You can do this with any role you can think of! More smarts like this are coming soon in my small-biz newsletter. Get on the list today!

📦 Packages ending up at the wrong house? Enter your address in Google Maps to see if it’s marked correctly. Press Suggest an edit (pencil icon) > Wrong address > Fix an address. Move the map to where your house is or type the correct info if you’re on a computer. Tap Submit.

Apple menu > System Settings > Displays: Head there on your Mac to see options for how text is displayed. Make it bigger, smaller or have more space between lines. Play around and see what you like. In nerd speak, you’re changing your screen resolution.

🥴 “What’d you say?” If you find yourself asking this more and more, it’s time to make a change. Forget the hearing aids your grandpa wore; today’s tech is so much better. These hearing aids* have two tiny processors that analyze the sound around you to make conversations crystal clear. Incredible.

Better than holding down the power button: Windows PCs have a hidden emergency restart when nothing will respond. Hold down Ctrl and click the power icon in the Start menu. You’ll get a dramatic-looking message warning you’ll lose any unsaved data. Click OK to restart immediately.

3 signs there’s a card skimmer: Criminals put them on ATMs, gas pumps and payment terminals at grocery stores to steal your info. Red flags: 1.) The buttons on the PIN pad are off-center, 2.) They’re hard to push and 3.) Part of the pad is loose. If anything feels off, walk away. Better bet: Use your credit card’s tap-to-pay option, Apple Pay or Google Pay.

UFC fighter Maycee Barber is endorsing a $240 amulet (above) that promises to protect you from electromagnetic radiation (EMF). Nope. Scientific testing shows it’s completely useless.

A freebie a day keeps us all happy. If you’ve ever dreaded installing software on a new computer, Ninite is your secret weapon. It lets you choose popular apps like Chrome, Zoom or Dropbox, bundles them into one installer, and skips all the annoying pop-ups, toolbars and junk. Even better, you can use Ninite to update your programs with one click — no more hunting for updates. It’s free, fast, and takes the hassle out of setting up or maintaining a PC. Sweetness.

Protect yourself: Before you go, do yourself a favor and check out Incogni. Privacy is on my mind today, and I’ll bet it’s on yours, too. Get your name, address, phone number, health conditions and more out of these data-broker and people-search sites.

🫶 That’s all, folks. I’ll see you right back here tomorrow with another issue of the best tech newsletter in the USA. Until then, stay fabulous and fearless! — Kim