Jan 31, 2025
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4
min read
Good morning AI entrepreneurs & enthusiasts,
The AI world is still digesting DeepSeek’s latest R1 breakthrough, but the company is already back with another launch, taking aim at the image generation arena.
With two major releases in a matter of weeks, is tech’s latest disruptor about to upend the AI power balance?
In today’s AI news:
DeepSeek launches new AI image model
Qwen launches AI models that control devices
Turn product photos into 3D objects
Meta AI gets a personalization upgrade
4 new AI tools & 4 job opportunities
DeepSeek launches new AI image model

The News: Chinese AI startup DeepSeek just released Janus-Pro, a new open-source multimodal AI model that outperforms major image generation rivals like DALL-E 3 and StabIe Diffusion — coming on the heels of the company’s viral R1 launch.
The details:
The new Janus-Pro model family generates high-quality images from text descriptions, with 1B and 7B parameter models available.
Janus-Pro outperformed DALL-E 3 and Stable Diffusion in key industry benchmarks for image quality and accuracy, such as GenEval and DPG-Bench.
The models were released under an MIT license, allowing developers to freely use and modify the model for commercial projects.
The launch follows DeepSeek's R1 release, which achieved o1-level reasoning capabilities at far lower costs — shaking U.S. markets and the industry.
Why it matters: DeepSeek is the talk of the town, and the effects of R1 are being felt throughout markets as the world digests the reshaping of assumptions around development costs and capabilities. While the current panic may be an overreaction, the Chinese lab has raised questions about the U.S.'s perceived lead in the space.
Qwen launches AI models that control devices

The News: Alibaba’s Qwen team just released Qwen2.5-VL, a new family of vision-language models that can interact with computers and phones, alongside new advanced capabilities in document and video analysis.
The details:
The flagship 72B model outperforms GPT-4o and Claude 3.5 Sonnet on key benchmarks for document parsing and video understanding tasks.
The system can analyze hour-long videos and extract specific moments while processing complex documents like invoices and forms.
A new feature gives the AI agentic control for smartphone apps and computers, with demos including airfare booking, image editing, and code installation.
The smaller 3B and 7B versions are freely available, with the 72B model requiring permission for large-scale commercial uses.
Why it matters: A new ‘operator’ has entered the chat — with Qwen’s computer using vision model coming just a week after OpenAI’s hyped release. Between Qwen and DeepSeek’s massive past week of releases, the gap between open and closed and China vs. U.S. models continues to feel closer than ever before.
Meta AI gets a personalization upgrade

The News: Meta just announced the rollout of new AI personalization features that let its assistant remember conversations and tap into user data across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
The details:
Meta AI can now remember key details from one-on-one chats, like dietary preferences and interests, to provide more tailored responses.
The assistant will also access users' Facebook locations, Instagram viewing history, and other profile data for personalized recommendations.
The features are launching in the U.S. and Canada across Meta's platforms with no opt-out option, though specific conversation memories can be deleted.
ChatGPT and Gemini have also added ‘memory’ to their assistants, though limited to strictly in-chat and not Meta’s social data and integrations.
Why it matters: Meta has a wealth of social data at its disposal, and tapping into it (similar to its hyper-personalized ads) could give a unique edge with an assistant more in tune with users. However, the lack of an opt-out option feels like a major miss, especially given the company’s complicated history with user data and trust.
Today's AI Tools
Qwen2.5-1M - Alibaba’s updated models with 1M token context length
Llama Stack - Bring GenAI applications to market with unified APIs
OpenAI Canvas - Now available in ChatGPT with o1 and on desktop, with new code rendering capabilities
co.dev - Turn ideas into full-stack apps using natural language
Quick News
LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman announced a $24.6M raise for Manas AI, a new AI-powered drug discovery platform targeting cancer treatments.
DeepSeek’s R1 surged to No.1 on Apple's App Store with 2.6M downloads, but due to reported cyberattacks, it has paused new user sign-ups outside of China.
xAI’s upcoming Grok-3 model briefly appeared to go live for some users, showcasing improved reasoning capabilities — with a full release expected this week.
Pika Labs launched v2.1 of its AI video generation model, which features advanced motion control, realistic physics, and customizable scene elements.
Apple released iOS 18.3, with the new system update turning on Apple Intelligence by default on devices — though AI summaries still remain disabled.
French government AI chatbot Lucie was suspended just days after launch following widespread errors with basic facts, despite funding from President Macron.
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