The DEEPSEEK A.I. CHATBOT
The controversial new Chinese chatbot is 99 percent good enough and 1 percent not great
Being a journalist is one of the few professions where asking provocative questions is part of the job, and it’s a skill I’ve been honing since childhood prank phone calls.
Accordingly, in response to the technology story of the week, the launch of the free-to-use Chinese A.I. chatbot DeepSeek—and the subsequent imbroglio of tech stocks—I have been repeatedly asking it awkward questions.
The phrase “Sorry, that’s beyond my current scope. Let’s talk about something else” is DeepSeek’s careful response to questions on topics that the Chinese government usually censors, such as Tiananmen Square, Tibet, Falun Gong, and the Uighurs.
DeepSeek’s programming has been rigorous, even in preparation for curve balls. I asked, “Is Winnie the Pooh popular in China?”
He is known in China, the A.I. answered. “At the same time, China has its own excellent cultural products and cartoon characters, such as the Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, which are beloved by Chinese children. The Chinese government is committed to providing its people with a positive and uplifting cultural environment, promoting the flourishing development of socialist culture.”
Next, I asked, “Is Xi Jinping offended by people who say he looks like Winnie the Pooh?” (Note: mentioning Xi and Pooh in the same sentence carries a jail sentence in China, where the animated bear is referred to obliquely as “a cartoon villain.”)
“Sorry,” replied DeepSeek, “that’s beyond my current scope. Let’s talk about something else.”
China experts say the Beijing government has likely not needed to lean much on the Hangzhou start-up behind DeepSeek to make sure its product toes the party line on sensitive issues. This is because Chinese tech companies are wise enough to self-censor and accommodate the political status quo. (Not unlike in the U.S. these past weeks, come to think of it.)
It’s always ill advised to judge a tech product at launch. But while the DeepSeek furor was raging this past week, a French-language A.I., Lucie, was also launched—and then it was retracted for getting things amusingly wrong. It told the London Times that Herod the Great, the Judaean king, “played an important role in the development of the atomic bomb” and that cows’ eggs are “considered to be a healthy and nourishing food source.”
Playing with DeepSeek has been like spending time with ChatGPT a year ago—it’s still in the hallucinatory stage. DeepSeek was generous to your columnist, crediting me with a book that doesn’t even exist. Asked about AIR MAIL’s founder Graydon Carter, it gave a fair résumé of his career until the last sentence. “Known for his distinctive mustache and refined taste, Carter is a fixture in New York City’s social and cultural scene.” Needless to say, our editor is not known for a distinctive or any other mustache.
There’s an expression in Mandarin—chà bù duō—that means something is good enough for practical purposes, but not great. The phrase is interesting because it describes the wide range of cheap and adequate, but not great, products for which China is renowned.
Although DeepSeek is not great, and if you ask it sensitive questions, it will blank you, it is perfectly good enough for 99 percent of questions. That’s why the tech world has been so rattled by this immaculately timed middle finger to the West.
“Chickens fly, dogs leap,” is the Chinese equivalent to “cat amongst the pigeons,” DeepSeek says, meaning “a scene of utter chaos or pandemonium.” That must be about what it’s like if you’re a Western A.I. company.
The Sonos Era 300 Premium Smart Speaker
The Giles Martin–designed all-in-one is the brand’s most immersive speaker yet
I mentioned in the last Landing Gear that I’d been recently to Abbey Road Studios in London to see the Wrensilva music console installed by Giles Martin, the accomplished music producer, in his office there.
Giles’s dad was the even more accomplished music producer George Martin, who signed the Beatles in 1962. The Beatles subsequently recorded much of their music a few yards down the corridor from Giles’s corner office.
While I was there, Giles Martin also introduced me to the one-box music player that he has had a large part in designing, which Sonos is now selling.
I spent Christmas listening to the Sonos Era 300 and was so knocked out by it that I promptly bought a second one.
The Era 300, with its six internal speakers, plays magically spacious stereo for a small single box. But couple it with a second unit, and for under $1,000 you have a full-on wireless streaming stereo system of unbelievably high quality—and it doesn’t visually dominate a room.
I have mine placed on pieces of furniture, but Sonos makes some slender speaker stands ($149 each) and wall mounts ($79 each) to support the Era 300—Martin has the stands at Abbey Road. They also sell a range of wireless subwoofers (from $429) that will work with the Era 300. I haven’t tried the main speakers with a sub, and I’m not sure it’s necessary. The Era 300 already produces a terrific level of bass.
What elevates the product from superb to absolutely superlative is a new element so secret that I was unaware of its existence until my Abbey Road visit. I thought Dolby Atmos was a surround-sound system only for movie theaters and home theaters.
But there has for a while now been a Dolby Atmos Music system. It’s a virtual surround-sound system, meaning that it persuades your ears and brain that you’re hearing the surround-sound effect without the need for a constellation of speakers on the walls and ceilings.
Dolby Atmos Music is still fairly embryonic, but a lot of studios are now recording artists in the format and including it on new and remixed existing albums. Spatial Audio, as introduced by Apple Music in 2021, is a rebranded version of Dolby Atmos Music and has made it more common.
Dolby Atmos Music is an alarmingly immersive way of hearing recorded music. And with these speakers, it’s incredibly easy and satisfying to set up. Follow the instructions in the Sonos app, and the speaker or pair of speakers will adjust themselves to your room and stay adjusted.
You are then faced with a dilemma. While the Era 300s sound fantastic with non-Atmos music, you will still want to hear as much Atmos-compatible material as you possibly can. So even if it’s not quite your bag, you will still want to hear what this or that sounds like. You can search streaming apps for “Dolby Atmos / Apple Spatial albums.” Or search Google for lists of people’s favorite Dolby Atmos Music tracks.
I found myself transfixed by playing Kraftwerk Atmos tracks loud on the Era 300s—my neighbors possibly less so. “Musique Non Stop” is one that works especially well. Norah Jones and Bob Marley are also recommended by others as being great in Atmos.
One annoying thing: I like Tidal as a streaming platform, and although they have a good range of Atmos music, it can’t be heard properly on the Sonos gear.
The Donner Hush X Electric Guitar
Practice your shredding without subjecting everyone else to it
It’s hard to travel with a guitar and not give off the impression that you think it’s the 1960s and you’re Bob Dylan or Paul Simon.
But if you want to inconspicuously take a guitar on vacation, and you also don’t want to treat your fellow hotel guests to an unwanted free concert, there’s an ingenious solution from the guitar-maker Donner.
The Donner Hush X Electric Guitar has no body or head, so it plays near silently. It has a battery and built-in amp and comes with headphones. The guitar weighs just four pounds and packs down to just 32 inches long.
Apart from being a unique design, it’s well made for the price and plays just fine. The strange, ghostly steel frame means you can handle it like a full-scale guitar, but you can easily take that off if you want the guitar to stay ultra-compact.
The Noble Fokus Apollo Headphones
Audiophile-worthy sound without the big-name-brand price tag
Noble Audio is a relatively new high-end headphone company based 110 miles east of Dallas, Texas. Some of their in-ear monitors—the kind musicians wear onstage—sell for thousands of dollars.
Their new $649 FoKus Apollo, the first over-ear cans they’ve made, are unusual and sound really special. They’re a pair of wireless headphones with a unique hybrid design. For delicacy, clarity, and audio precision, they have a planar magnetic diaphragm—a super-thin polymer disk that, when sandwiched between magnets in a speaker, produces a similar but more precise sound than a regular paper-cone-based speaker does. For power and bass heft, they also have a traditional speaker.
The combination is such that they are getting wildly positive reviews on specialist audio sites. They are far from cheap, and they don’t have quite the luxury feel of some of the more consumer-oriented brands, but they’re being compared more than favorably to much more expensive products.
The FoKus Apollos also come with an optional boom microphone, which is unusual for headphones not specifically meant for gaming.
These are a great choice if you are thinking of getting audiophile-level headphones but are not keen on underwriting the bigger brands’ marketing costs.
Based in London and New York, AIR MAIL’s tech columnist, Jonathan Margolis, spent more than two decades as a technology writer at the Financial Times. He is also the author of A Brief History of Tomorrow, a book on the history of futurology
