Lots has happened this past week in the tech world! With DeepSeek gaining quick popularity around the world, Uber CEO speaking on the adoption of robotaxis, and more, there’s much to catch up on. So, let’s get started!
A Chinese-developed AI model called DeepSeek has skyrocketed to the top of Apple Store downloads, surprising investors and causing a dip in some tech stocks. Released on January 20, the latest version of DeepSeek quickly garnered the attention of AI experts before making waves throughout the tech industry and beyond.
President Donald Trump referred to it as a “wake-up call” for American companies, urging them to focus on “competing to win.” What sets DeepSeek apart is the company’s claim that it was created at a fraction of the cost of leading models like OpenAI’s, thanks to its use of fewer advanced chips.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in an interview last Friday that driving for Uber is only a safe gig for the next decade. After that, autonomous vehicles, or cars that drive themselves, will take over the same routes humans drive today.
“You fast forward 15, 20 years, I think that the autonomous driver is going to be a better driver than the human driver,” Khosrowshahi told the Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern at WSJ Journal House Davos. “They will have trained on lifetimes of driving that no person can, they’re not going to be distracted.”
Shares of United Parcel Service (UPS) dropped over 15% on Thursday after the company issued a disappointing revenue forecast for the year and announced plans to reduce deliveries to Amazon, its largest customer, by more than half.
In its fourth-quarter earnings report, UPS revealed that it had “reached an agreement in principle” with Amazon to cut delivery volume by over 50% by the second half of 2026. At the same time, UPS outlined plans to overhaul its U.S. network and roll out multi-year efficiency initiatives, expecting to save around $1 billion in the process.
On Thursday, OpenAI announced that the U.S. National Laboratories will begin using its latest AI tech models for scientific research and nuclear weapons security.
The agreement allows up to 15,000 scientists at the National Laboratories to access OpenAI’s reasoning-focused o1 series. Additionally, OpenAI will collaborate with its primary investor, Microsoft, to deploy one of its models on Venado, the supercomputer at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Venado is powered by technology from Nvidia and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, according to the announcement.
During Tesla’s earnings call on Wednesday, Chief Financial Officer Vaibhav Taneja warned that the company’s profitability could be affected if President Donald Trump’s administration moves forward with imposing tariffs on goods from major trading partners.
Taneja explained, “Over the years, we’ve worked to localize our supply chain in every market, but we’re still dependent on parts from around the world for all our operations.” He added that the potential “imposition of tariffs” would likely impact both Tesla’s tech business and profitability.
