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.