On a relaxing and hopeful Friday afternoon, I brewed a cup of coffee and settled in front of my computer. Staring at DEEPSEEK—a tool I’d grown increasingly reliant on for work—I felt both familiarity and curiosity. I first encountered it last December, when the internet was ablaze with claims that DEEPSEEK rivaled GPT-4’s capabilities at a fraction of the cost, even outperforming it in reasoning tasks. The buzz sent shockwaves through Wall Street, sparking my curiosity until I finally gave it a try in January.

I’m a straightforward person, and my first impression of DEEPSEEK was positive—not because of its reasoning, Q&A, or problem-solving skills, but because of its elegantly simple name ("Deep Exploration") and that adorable blue whale logo. What truly hooked me, though, was its relevance to my work. As an independent trader and a fledgling cross-border e-commerce entrepreneur, I’m constantly crafting product descriptions and ad copy for my online store. While I’d been using GPT-4 with decent results—its drafts were professional yet rigid, often requiring heavy editing—DEEPSEEK surprised me. Feed it the same prompts, and it delivers copy that’s equally professional yet infused with poetic flair, evoking an almost visceral excitement.

DEEPSEEK is exceptional, arguably surpassing GPT in some ways, though I’d hate to pit these two marvels against each other. What truly unnerves me is the speed of AI’s evolution. Since its inception, AI’s intelligence has outpaced human capability with unsettling ease. MidJourney is replacing graphic designers; DEEPSEEK can channel any profession, delivering answers that are both expert-grade and logically airtight. So here’s the unsettling question: What will we even do in the next decade?