In an unprecedented move that has taken the tech world by storm, DeepSeek has successfully acquired the coveted domain name AI.com for an astounding $8.9 billion, making it not only the most expensive domain transaction in history but also a symbolic milestone in the AI landscapeThis staggering amount — nearly 30 times greater than the previous record held by Voice.com, which sold for $30 million in 2019 — underscores the burgeoning significance of artificial intelligence in our digital era.
According to internal documents from a Silicon Valley investment bank, the transaction was finalized with a mystery seller, believed to have sparked bidding wars among tech giants like OpenAI and GoogleTheir fierce competition was ultimately eclipsed by DeepSeek's promise to open-source the domain permanentlyMorgan Stanley analysts declared this acquisition as more than just a domain purchase; it signifies a coronation of sorts for the next era of AI advancements, inferring a shift towards embracing openness and accessibility.
However, the path to this acquisition wasn't without its dramaRevelations from former OpenAI security personnel indicate that back in 2018, AI.com was so valuable that the organization had to employ a private security detail, including retired Marines, to protect its serversThe situation escalated when Elon Musk, during negotiations for the domain in 2021, refused to agree to the seller’s condition requiring Tesla to share autonomous driving dataMusk's public lament about the missed opportunity on a late-night post on X indicated the high stakes involved in securing such a prime digital asset.
For experts in the field, AI.com carries a legacyStanford professor Fei-Fei Li remarked on the significance of the domain, which encapsulates a half-century of AI's evolution, finally finding a beneficial steward in the 21st century
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Such thoughts echo within academic circles, further emphasizing the weight of responsibility that accompanies this domain.
As soon as the domain shifted to DeepSeek, activity surgedAn analysis of access logs revealed that within just three days, the site recorded a staggering 13 trillion response requestsMore impressively, reports emerged that DeepSeek’s technology team utilized its vast network of global nodes to conduct reinforcement learning experiments equivalent to what GPT-4 would require over three months of training, achieved within a measly three daysAn anonymous engineer elaborated, stating, "We are conducting tests on a novel distributed training architecture, where the global resolution system of AI.com acts as an existing supercomputing network."
The implications of AI.com extend beyond mere functionalityIn a shocking twist, just two days after registering the domain, DeepSeek was listed on the U.SDepartment of Defense’s annual AI supplier directory, marking a historic first for a Chinese tech firmDocuments obtained by the Washington Post revealed that the Pentagon had previously tested battlefield decision systems on subdomains of AI.com, achieving an incredible conflict prediction accuracy rate of 91%. U.SNational Security Advisor Jake Sullivan promptly convened with congressional members, categorizing this moment as a "digital Pearl Harbor."
Amidst these developments, a baffling discovery on the AI.com homepage has sparked excitement and disbelief among developers worldwideWithin the site's code, cryptographers from Freie Universität Berlin reported finding intricate puzzles encoded in qubits — raising eyebrows across the tech communityThey calculated that breaking this encryption could take roughly 150 years using current computational powerEven more mystifying is that each refresh of the webpage generates a new encryption keyDeepSeek's CTO hinted during a press conference that this encryption mechanism is not merely a gimmick but an essential firewall constructed to counter potential AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) incursions.
Understanding the underlying technology reveals why such measures are crucial
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