The Chinese AI app DeepSeek has sent shockwaves through the US scientific and technological communities, drawing widespread attention for its revolutionary innovations and capabilities.
In late December of 2024, DeepSeek released the hybrid model DeepSeek-V3, whose evaluation scores in multiple tests have surpassed open-source models such as Llama-3.1-405B, and its performance is comparable to the world's top closed-source models GPT-4o and Claude-3.5-Sonnet. In addition, DeepSeek-V3 is more cost-effective.
On January 20, the opening day of the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2025 Annual Meeting, DeepSeek released its latest open-source model DeepSeek-R1, which has achieved an important technological breakthrough -- using pure deep learning methods to allow AI to spontaneously emerge with reasoning capabilities.
In tasks such as mathematics, coding and natural language reasoning, the performance of this model is comparable to the leading models from heavyweights like OpenAI, according to DeepSeek.
The training cost of DeepSeek-R1 amounts to a mere 5.6 million U.S. dollars, a figure that stands in stark contrast to the hundreds of millions - or even billions - of dollars invested by American tech giants like OpenAI, Google, and Meta.
At present, DeepSeek has topped the Apple App Store's free downloads in the U.S., outpacing ChatGPT in free downloads.
According to the Reuters, Nvidia on Monday said DeepSeek's advances show the usefulness of its chips for the Chinese market and that more of its chips will be needed in the future to meet demand for DeepSeek's services.
In an interview with China Media Group (CMG), Robert McCooey, vice chairman of Nasdaq, said DeepSeek is going to be an important aspect of the AI revolution.
"I think that AI will continue to be one of the most important revolutions, will be some of the most important things that we will experience in our lifetime and DeepSeek is going to be an important aspect of that," McCooey said.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday said that the release of DeepSeek should be a wake-up call for our industries that they need to be laser-focused on competing.
Trump described the low-cost model as "very much a positive development" for the AI industry, emphasizing that rather than investing billions upon billions, firms can achieve comparable results at a fraction of the cost.
Chinese AI app DeepSeek shocks US tech industry with groundbreaking innovation
Chinese AI app DeepSeek shocks US tech industry with groundbreaking innovation
Researchers have confirmed that Unit 731, a Japanese germ-warfare unit that operated during World War II, developed over 50 types of bacteria through human experimentation, later selecting the most lethal strains for use in biological warfare during its invasion of China.
According to Jin Shicheng, director of the Department of Publicity, Education and Exhibition at the Exhibition Hall of Evidence of Crimes Committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army in northeast China's Harbin, the unit carried out extensive human experimentation in the Pingfang District of Harbin, with the primary aim of launching bacteriological warfare.
"Starting with the 1939 Nomonhan campaign, bacteriological warfare was launched in several southern Chinese cities, including Quzhou, Ningbo, and Changde, between 1940 and 1941. Weather observation units took part by providing meteorological data to assist in the execution of germ attacks," said Jin.
Recently, the exhibition hall released a 38-minute video further verifying these historical crimes. The footage features Tsuruo Nishijima, a former member of Unit 731's meteorological squad, offering firsthand testimony. The video was recorded in 1997 by Japanese scholar Fuyuko Nishisato and was donated to the exhibition hall in 2019. The hall itself stands at the former headquarters of Unit 731 in Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang Province.
Nishijima joined Unit 731 in October 1938 and served in its meteorological squad, which was not merely for observation but functioned as a support unit for field experiments. He confirmed that the "meteorological squad had to be present at every field experiment," gathering data on wind direction, wind speed, and other conditions to optimize bacterial dispersion.
"I took part in actual combat. It was during the Zhejiang-Jiangxi campaign in 1941 (Showa 16). The so-called Nanchang operation was a military offensive advancing from the Zhejiang-Jiangxi and Hangzhou areas toward Nanchang. As I recall, it was in Showa 16, and I joined the army in that operation," said Nishijima.
Nishijima testified that during that operation, Unit 731 mobilized a 30 to 40-person team carrying large quantities of bacterial cultures including typhoid, paratyphoid, cholera, and dysentery, along with plague-infected fleas. As the Japanese ground forces retreated, the team's mission was to spread these pathogens into wells, rivers, farmlands, and residential areas.
Jin emphasized that Japan's horrific actions blatantly violated international law.
"At that time, Japan had signed the international treaty, the Geneva Protocol, in 1925 and was fully aware that the use of biological and chemical weapons was prohibited. However, they still chose to deploy such biological weapons. In their war of aggression abroad, they blatantly disregarded international agreements, focused solely on achieving their expansionist goals, and resorted to every possible means of invasion, ignoring all restraints," the education director said.
He also said that these were not rogue operations by isolated units, but a state-sponsored, top-down campaign directed by the Japanese militarist regime. Cloaked in the language of "science" and "military necessity," these actions represent one of the gravest betrayals of international law and human conscience, he added.
"After the bacteriological warfare was carried out across the Zhejiang-Jiangxi region, many villages in Zhejiang experienced outbreaks of plague, cholera, typhoid, and anthrax. Numerous elderly residents developed what became known as 'rotting foot disease,' a lasting consequence of the germ warfare," said Jin.
Researchers have said Nishijima's testimony provides direct insight into Unit 731's involvement in both human experimentation and biological warfare, offering irrefutable evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
"Through the collection, organization, and study of evidence related to Unit 731, we have reconstructed a complete chain of war crimes involving biological warfare. This work exposes the crimes against humanity committed by Japan during its invasion of China, allowing more people to learn about this dark chapter of history, so that we may learn from the past, safeguard peace, and never forget the past," Jin said.
Testimony reveals Japan's germ warfare crimes in China
