Welcome back to Daily Zaps, your regularly-scheduled dose of AI news ⚡️ 

Here’s what we got for ya today:

• World Leaders at Paris Artificial Intelligence Action Summit

• Amazon's gen AI-powered Alexa is coming

• Move to ban China's DeepSeek from government devices

• Google launches Gemini 2.0 Pro

Let’s get right into it!

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WORLD NEWS

Paris Artificial Intelligence Action Summit

World leaders, tech executives, and experts from 80 countries are gathering in Paris for the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit to discuss the rapid evolution of AI, with China's DeepSeek emerging as a major talking point. DeepSeek's rise has challenged U.S. dominance in AI, prompting discussions on global leadership, competition, and regulation.

While Europe sees the summit as a chance to assert itself in AI, the U.S. is sending high-profile representatives, including Vice President JD Vance, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, and Google’s Sundar Pichai. China, in contrast to previous summits where its involvement was limited, is expected to play a central role with senior officials attending.

BIG TECH

Amazon's gen AI-powered Alexa is coming

Amazon is expected to unveil a new AI-powered version of Alexa at a press event on February 26, led by former Microsoft executive Panos Panay. According to reports, the company is finalizing its "Go/No-go" decision on February 14 to assess Alexa’s readiness.

The generative AI upgrade will enable Alexa to handle multiple prompts in a single conversation, act autonomously, and remember user preferences for tasks like ordering food or recommending music. The new AI-powered Alexa will be compatible with existing devices and initially offered to a limited number of users for free, but Amazon is considering a subscription fee of $5 to $10 per month.

GOVERNMENT

Lawmakers move to ban China's DeepSeek from government devices

A bipartisan congressional bill is being introduced to ban China's DeepSeek AI software from government devices due to national security concerns. Reps. Darin LaHood (R-Ill.) and Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) argue that DeepSeek, affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party, poses an espionage risk by potentially collecting and storing U.S. user data.

A cybersecurity analysis revealed hidden code in DeepSeek’s chatbot app that could send user login information to China Mobile, a state-owned entity banned in the U.S. While DeepSeek has gained attention for its advanced AI capabilities at lower costs, concerns over its true development expenses and potential surveillance have sparked alarm. Lawmakers stress that the U.S. must act to prevent foreign access to sensitive government and personal data.

BIG TECH

Google launches Gemini 2.0 Pro

Google has steadily improved its Gemini AI models, despite early setbacks, and is now pushing forward with the release of Gemini 2.0 Flash, Flash-Lite, and an experimental version of Gemini 2.0 Pro. These models, available through Google AI Studio and Vertex AI, support multimodal inputs and cater to different needs—from cost-effective solutions with Flash-Lite to high-performance capabilities in Pro. Notably, Gemini 2.0 Flash offers a 1-million-token context window, significantly outpacing competitors like OpenAI’s o3-mini.

Flash-Lite provides a budget-friendly alternative while still outperforming previous models, and Pro extends capabilities further with a 2-million-token context window and advanced reasoning features. Google is also enhancing AI safety with reinforcement learning and security testing. With these updates, Google is positioning Gemini as a strong competitor in the AI market, challenging OpenAI and DeepSeek with a mix of affordability, efficiency, and advanced functionality.