Hey Synapticians 😀

The DeepSeek saga continues with OpenAI complaining about plagiarism, Alibaba’s new model claiming to be the best, and Mr. Anthropic questioning export controls to China (but not import controls 😉). But the top news of the day (cocorico!) is Mistral’s new small model: its performance seems really strong, with exceptional speed and low latency.

As a bonus, you’ll see that MIT students are innovating, and some ideas—especially for those with children—are truly dream-worthy.

Ah, and we’re happy and proud—there are 500 of you reading us! 🎉😍 

Ready, set, happy reading!

Top AI news

1. Mistral Small 3: Faster Than Larger AI Models
On January 30, 2025, French AI lab Mistral announced Mistral Small 3, a latency-optimized 24-billion-parameter language model under the Apache 2.0 license. The model competes with larger counterparts like Llama 3.3 70B and Qwen 32B, delivering over three times faster performance on the same hardware. Unlike previous versions restricted by the Mistral Research License, Mistral Small 3 is fully open-source, allowing unrestricted local deployment and modification. Mistral also plans to offer commercial models with specialized capabilities for enterprise needs. The model is accessible via Mistral's "La Plateforme" API and can be run locally using tools like Ollama.

2. Alibaba's Qwen 2.5-Max Outperforms DeepSeek V3 in Benchmarks
Alibaba has introduced Qwen 2.5-Max, its latest Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) large-scale AI model. In certain benchmarks, Qwen 2.5-Max has outperformed DeepSeek V3, showcasing Alibaba's progress in AI development. The MoE architecture allows the model to distribute tasks among multiple specialized experts, enhancing efficiency and accuracy. While specific details of the benchmarks and areas of superiority are not provided, this achievement positions Alibaba as a significant player in advanced AI model development, competing with other industry leaders.

3. Dario Amodei Discusses DeepSeek's Impact on Export Controls
In January 2025, Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, analyzed DeepSeek's recent AI advancements and their implications for U.S. export controls on chips to China. He contends that while DeepSeek has made significant progress, this does not undermine the necessity for stringent export controls. Amodei outlines three key dynamics in AI development: scaling laws, efficiency improvements, and paradigm shifts. He argues that export controls are essential to prevent the Chinese Communist Party from gaining technological advantages and to ensure that democratic nations remain at the forefront of AI innovation.

Bonus. MIT Students' AI Projects Transform Interaction
On January 29, 2025, MIT highlighted student projects from course 4.043/4.044 (Interaction Intelligence) presented at NeurIPS. These initiatives showcase AI's potential beyond automation, emphasizing creativity, education, and social interaction. Notable projects include "A Mystery for You," an educational game fostering critical thinking; "Be the Beat," an AI-powered boombox synchronizing music with dance movements; "Narratron," an interactive projector bringing children's stories to life through shadow puppetry; "Memorscope," a device creating shared memories via face-to-face AI interactions; and "Perfect Syntax," a video art piece exploring AI's manipulation of video fragments.

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Theme of the Week

AI Generated Podcast - Scientific Paper review
WaveNet, a deep learning model by DeepMind, has transformed the way we generate sound. From natural-sounding speech to realistic music, WaveNet pushes boundaries by creating audio directly from raw waveforms. It's a game-changer for virtual assistants, music production, and beyond!

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