China’s AI frenzy: DeepSeek is already everywhere — cars, phones, even hospitals
restofworld.org
Chinese companies, as a signal of patriotism, are racing to build services on top of the homegrown AI model that has taken the world by storm since January.
  • DeepSeek is now embedded in a wide range of products and government services in the country.
  • Some officials have warned about overreliance on DeepSeek.
  • Beijing views AI development as a critical driver of economic growth and a strategic pillar in global tech competition.
  • Waifu@ani.socialEnglish
    59·
    18 days ago

    China’s biggest home appliances company, Midea, has launched a series of DeepSeek-enhanced air conditioners. The product is an “understanding friend” who can “catch your thoughts accurately,” according to the company’s product launch video.

    It can respond to users’ verbal expressions — such as “I am feeling cold” — by automatically adjusting temperature and humidity levels, and can “chat and gossip” using its DeepSeek-supported voice function, according to Midea. For those looking for more DeepSeek-powered electronics, there are also vacuum cleaners and fridges.

    Big Brother wasn’t in the TV it was in the A/C.

    • Null User Object@lemmy.worldEnglish
      28·
      18 days ago

      It can respond to users’ verbal expressions — such as “I am feeling cold” — by automatically adjusting temperature

      LOL. Who in hell wants to talk to appliances like that? If I wanted to talk to an appliances at all (not really) it would be to give very explicit instructions, not some vague complaint.

      and can “chat and gossip"

      Translation: “We couldn’t figure out how to get an LLM to not do this, so we’re just going to call it a feature.”

  • stardust@lemmy.caEnglish
    12·
    17 days ago

    I just want dumb appliances that stay dumb and don’t need no ai or app shit.

    And I want OS that just launch and download programs I click without account login requirements and ai shit trying to be my dumb shit buddy.

    • futatorius@lemm.eeEnglish
      2·
      15 days ago

      Agreed, No AI that I can’t turn off. No AI that can’t be turned off without disabling critical functionality.

      If I buy a toaster, a fridge or a washing machine, I don’t need it to have an internet connection or an OS, let alone AI. The only thing it needs an OS for is to collect data on me that can be sold to aggregators. That should be illegal, and if I can’t disable it, I won’t buy the gadget.

    • Eagle0110@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      16 days ago

      Chinese companies have always been enshitifying for decades. A defining characteristic of China is that it’s pure capitalism with very little regulation compares to even the US, and nowhere close to the EU.

      • futatorius@lemm.eeEnglish
        1·
        15 days ago

        It’s single-party state capitalism, so the enshittification is already neck-deep.

        • Eagle0110@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          15 days ago

          More like enshitification is the norm.

          What’s capitalism without enshitification? And in an actually functioning society where capitalism is not literally the only thing the society operates on, there would be regulatory and state policies preventing enshitification from becoming the only thing there is because supposedly a government is one of the things that is NOT for-profit like a company. So without that enshitification would be the only thing left in a pure capitalism society.

          And we are watching exactly how it’s like when a government is becoming for-profit in the US :(

  • nectar45@lemmy.zipEnglish
    5·
    16 days ago

    Like I said before, the only thing ai could provide me for me to consider it remotely useful is a time machine…and that is not fucking happening