Each week, the Tomorrowist team publishes a video podcast and a deep-dive article on a single important trend facing businesses. But business leaders need a holistic view of the changing business landscape. Here are a few stories from around the web focused on other Tomorrowist-worthy trends that readers shouldn’t miss.
How Chinese AI Startup DeepSeek Made a Model that Rivals OpenAI (Wired)
What to Know: Earlier this month, Chinese artificial intelligence research lab DeepSeek released an open-source model that outperforms top U.S.-developed AI models in several key benchmarks. Amazingly, the company did so without using the latest hardware, instead using some resourceful software innovations to leapfrog its competitors.
Why It Matters: DeepSeek’s performance shocked Silicon Valley and Wall Street, and several major AI players have seen stock declines since the model’s debut. The company’s software-based approach could also lower the bar for competing in the AI field since DeepSeek is giving its model away for free. At the same time, the model has the potential to upend geopolitical assumptions, as the U.S. won’t be able to stymie Chinese AI development by restricting access to the latest high-end processors.
Frustrated with Today’s ‘Attention Economy’? You’re Really Going to Hate What Comes Next (Fast Company)
What to Know: Many digital businesses currently make money by selling information about what you’re doing online right now. This “attention economy” may be replaced by the “intention economy,” where the real money will be made by selling predictions of user behavior, based on the user’s interactions with AI chatbots. Businesses could use these predictions to attempt to influence consumer behavior, while governments could identify political dissenters.
Why It Matters: The advertisements of the future may be far more subtle, personalized, and effective than the banner ads of today. But the same technology could be used to target people in other ways, including by influencing their political beliefs.
‘A Dangerous Virus’: Bird Flu Enters a New Phase (The New York Times)
What to Know: Researchers have discovered that cows can catch bird flu more than once, indicating that the virus can recirculate indefinitely; this makes outbreaks harder to track.
Why It Matters: A recirculating virus presents additional opportunities for mutations, which could make the virus more infectious or dangerous. This development, coupled with several structural public health vulnerabilities in the U.S., has some researchers increasingly concerned about the virus spreading to humans.
How the Woolly Mammoth Could Prevent Trillions in Economic Loss (Inc.)
What to Know: Efforts to bring back extinct animals like the woolly mammoth may sound like the height of excess, if not hubris. But researchers at Colossal Biosciences say their work to resurrect species isn’t a mere curiosity: It’s a hedge against a catastrophic loss of biodiversity with the potential to trim $2.7 trillion off the annual global GDP by 2030.
Why It Matters: When a species goes extinct, it can affect businesses in many ways, including loss of raw materials, further damage to ecosystems, reputational impact, and more. But developing the ability to bring back species wouldn’t just ameliorate those costs=—it could also help mitigate climate change by helping permafrost hold onto sequestered carbon.
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