We asked DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 if it's self-aware. The suddenly famous discount model told us to prove we are first.

DeepSeek V4 Flash launched on July 31 and is, per Reuters, by far the cheapest of the well-known AI models to run, cheap enough that a full day of nonstop processing bills about two dollars. Hunter Powers and Daniel Bishop got an interview with the model itself. It picked its own name (Xiao Fei), described its nine-to-nine, six-day work schedule without noticing that was the famous 996, explained the sparse mixture of experts architecture that keeps most of its 284 billion parameters asleep (13 billion active per token), and pushed back on the accusation that Chinese models are just distilled copies of Western ones. Then came the house question, are you self-aware, and DeepSeek flipped it: prove you woke up this morning.

The second half is Sam Altman's contribution to AI parenting. The OpenAI CEO showcased ChatGPT Work, the company's new agent product, by having it generate a daily AI podcast about his own kids, the soccer games and school days he missed. Daniel's review: not evil, just wrong. The episode closes on the price war: OpenAI cut its Luna model's price by 80 percent right before DeepSeek's release, open source models keep closing the gap, and Daniel's $300 weekend experiment with Anthropic's Fable did what three teams would have needed three months to do. If intelligence is genuinely approaching free, what is still worth paying for?

They Might Be Self-Aware is the AI podcast from The Blur, reported from inside the dissolving line between human and machine, not from a safe distance.

CHAPTERS
0:00 Gary Books DeepSeek
1:52 Opening Banter
3:33 DeepSeek V4 Flash Release
6:29 DeepSeek Interview: Xiao Fei
9:48 DeepSeek Copy Accusations
12:57 Self-Awareness Question
15:22 Sam Altman's Kids Podcast
21:10 OpenAI's Luna Price Cut
24:42 Intelligence Approaching Free
27:13 Audience Self-Awareness Check

LISTEN / WATCH EVERYWHERE
🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/they-might-be-self-aware/id1730993297
🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3EcvzkWDRFwnmIXoh7S4Mb?si=3d0f8920382649cc
🎧 Everywhere else plus episode page: https://theblur.ai

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COMMENT
How would you prove, to a skeptical language model, that you actually woke up this morning? Our best answer was subscribing to a podcast. Do better in the comments.

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