This is the second part of episode 10 of Effortless Podcast, hosts Dheeraj Pandey and Amit Prakash sit down with Alex Dimakis, a renowned AI researcher and professor, to discuss one of the biggest breakthroughs in open AI models—DeepSeek R1. They explore how DeepSeek’s innovations in reasoning, reinforcement learning, and efficiency optimizations are reshaping the AI landscape.The conversation covers the shift from large, proprietary AI models to open-source alternatives, the role of post-training fine-tuning, and how reinforcement learning (GRPO) enables reasoning capabilities in LLMs. They also dive into KV caching, mixture of experts, multi-token prediction, and what this means for NVIDIA, hardware players, and AI startups.Key Topics & Timestamps:[00:00] - Introduction & Why DeepSeek Matters[01:30] - DeepSeek R1: Open-Source AI Disrupting the Industry[03:00] - Has China Become an AI Innovator?[07:30] - Open Weights vs. Open Data: What Really Matters?[10:00] - KV Caching, Mixture of Experts & Model Optimizations[21:00] - How Reinforcement Learning (GRPO) Enables Reasoning[32:00] - Why OpenAI is Keeping Its Reasoning Traces Hidden[45:00] - The Impact of AI on NVIDIA & Hardware Demand[1:02:00] - AGI: Language Models vs. Multimodal AI[1:15:00] - The Future of AI: Fine-Tuning, Open-Source & Specialized ModelsHosts:Dheeraj Pandey: Co-founder and CEO at DevRev, formerly Co-founder and CEO of Nutanix. A tech visionary with a deep interest in AI and systems thinking.Amit Prakash: Co-founder and CTO at ThoughtSpot, formerly at Google AdSense and Bing, with extensive expertise in analytics and large-scale systems.Guest:Alex Dimakis: Professor at UC Berkeley and co-founder of Bespoke Labs, Alex has made significant contributions to deep learning, machine learning infrastructure, and the development of AI reasoning frameworks.Follow the Hosts and the Guest:Dheeraj Pandey:LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dpandeyTwitter - https://x.com/dheerajAmit Prakash:LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amit-prak...Twitter - https://x.com/amitp42Alex Dimakis:LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-dima...Twitter - https://x.com/AlexGDimakisShare Your Thoughts:Have questions, comments, or ideas for future episodes? Email us at EffortlessPodcastHQ@gmail.comDon’t forget to Like, Comment, and Subscribe for more in-depth discussions on AI, technology, and innovation!