Together with

Table of Contents

• EDITOR’S RAMBLE 🗣

• FEATURED REPORT 📰

• TOGETHER WITH THE RUNDOWN AI* 🤝

• IN OTHER NEWS 🗞

• AROUND THE WEB 🌐

• STUFF THAT MIGHT HELP YOU 👌

EDITOR’S RAMBLE 🗣

We’re finally on TikTok!

So, go follow us there (yes, it’ll be educational but also memes) 👇️ 

@littlelawnews

where's the loyalty? #lawyersoftiktok #commerciallaw #uklawyer

- Idin

P.S. There are a few final spaces left for our workshop with Linklaters later today. If you’re free at 12pm, sign up now.

FEATURED REPORT 📰

💻 Did DeepSeek dethrone OpenAI?

What’s going on here?

Chinese startup DeepSeek launched its free AI-powered chatbot assistant last week.

Experts are saying it’s almost as good as OpenAI’s top model. It performed well in maths, coding, and reasoning tasks.

Since its launch, it’s become the top-rated free app on Apple’s App Store in the US and UK.

But DeepSeek had to temporarily stop new user registrations after a large-scale cyberattack. The source of the attack isn’t known, but the company’s recent media attention may have made it a target.

Where did DeepSeek come from?

DeepSeek was founded in 2023 by Chinese entrepreneur Liang Wenfeng. It’s funded by profits from his hedge fund, High-Flyer Capital (which uses AI to predict stock performance).

Unlike other startups, DeepSeek focuses purely on research — not making money.

Plus, DeepSeek is also offering some of the highest salaries to AI engineers in China, to attract the country’s top talent.

Why is DeepSeek such a big deal?

🫰 Lower cost of building AI: DeepSeek claims their AI was developed using Nvidia’s H800 chips, which are far less powerful than the H100 chips used by competitors. The US stopped exporting the H100 chips to China since September 2022 to try to slow China’s tech growth.

Because of this, DeepSeek’s AI model reportedly cost only $5.6 million to train — a tiny fraction of what competitors spend (Microsoft plans to invest about $80 billion in AI infrastructure this year).

If true, this challenges a key belief in Silicon Valley: that building top AI products requires ultra-powerful chips and hundreds of millions of dollars in investment.

🧑‍💻 Open-source code: Liang Wenfeng believes AI should be “affordable and accessible to everyone.” So, DeepSeek has made its AI code freely available (its competitors haven’t done this). This means developers can use, modify, and improve it as they want, making AI innovation much easier.

Are there any concerns?

Yes, two big ones.

🔐 Privacy: Unless users download and run the software locally, any data entered into the model is stored on Chinese servers. So, data from international users could flow to China. DeepSeek says the data will be used to “comply with its legal obligations.” But China’s laws allow its government to demand access to data from tech companies, potentially for national intelligence purposes.

🚫 Censorship: AI companies in China must ensure their products follow the Chinese Communist Party’s “socialist values.” Because of this, DeepSeek may provide different answers to politically sensitive questions compared to US-based chatbots like ChatGPT. For example, when asked about human rights abuses in Xinjiang — where China’s government has reportedly detained over a million members of a Muslim minority group — DeepSeek’s response differs from ChatGPT’s:

Why should law firms care?

🚀 Cheaper to develop, easier to deliver: DeepSeek’s lower development costs show that legal tech doesn’t have to cost billions. Currently, legal AI tools license their models from AI companies — Harvey, for example, is built on GPT-4 from OpenAI. DeepSeek’s open-source approach could make it cheaper to build AI legal tools, sparking innovation and allowing smaller players to enter the market.

⚖️ Driving down legal service costs: With better, more accessible tools, law firms can (in theory) work faster and more efficiently. This might drive down legal service costs, as clients expect those savings to be passed on. Firms that adopt these tools early could improve their reputation among clients while meeting growing demands for affordable services, giving them a competitive edge in the market.

⚠️ Data security and privacy concerns: DeepSeek stores user data on servers in China, which will concern lawyers (a lot of firms have been leaving China). Law firms are notoriously risk-averse, so these issues will have to be addressed if DeepSeek is going to be used in the legal industry. Harvey (which a lot of law firms use) avoids this problem by ensuring client data is never used for training its AI and offering security measures tailored to law firms’ strict confidentiality requirements.

TOGETHER WITH THE RUNDOWN AI* 🤝

Stay up-to-date with AI

The Rundown is the most trusted AI newsletter in the world, with 800,000+ readers and exclusive interviews with AI leaders like Mark Zuckerberg.

Their expert research team spends all day learning what’s new in AI and talking with industry experts, then distills the most important developments into one free email every morning.

Plus, complete the quiz after signing up and they’ll recommend the best AI tools, guides, and courses – tailored to your needs.

Sign up to start learning.

* This is sponsored content

IN OTHER NEWS 🗞

• ⚖️ One solicitor was appointed a new King’s Counsel (along with 104 barristers). That person was Sheila Ahuja from A&O Shearman. Known for her work in commercial arbitration and investor-state disputes, Sheila stands out in a field usually dominated by barristers. This year’s silk round saw 105 successful applicants from 326.

• 💳 The Mastercard lawsuit is settled – but not everyone’s happy! The long-running class action over Mastercard’s alleged overcharging ended in a £200 million settlement. Originally valued at £10 billion, the case claimed Mastercard’s fees led to higher prices for 46 million UK consumers from 1992 to 2008. Each claimant gets just £2 (no, that’s not a typo), while the litigation funder, Innsworth Capital, could pocket up to £100 million. But Innsworth isn’t satisfied — they’re challenging the deal, calling it “too low and premature.”

• 🌕 Astronomers are saying “no ads in space”. Scientists are pushing for a global ban on “obtrusive space advertising” after fears that companies might start beaming logos into the night sky. A US ban already exists, but astronomers worry firms in other countries — like Russia’s Avant Space — could launch satellites to display ads using lasers. This isn’t the first time the idea has come up: Pepsi considered running a space ad in 2019 but backed out.

AROUND THE WEB 🌐

• 🎵 Groovy: A super fun music quiz to see how well you can maintain tempo, discern pitch, and more

• 📚 Late: One library book in Hull was returned 50 years late

• 😊 Fun: Play around with this emoticon generator — I used it to make this lil guy: \(•ᴗ•)/

STUFF THAT MIGHT HELP YOU 👌

• 📹️ Free application help: If you're applying to commercial law firms, check out my YouTube channel for actionable tips and an insight into the lifestyle of a commercial lawyer in London.