Going Deep on ‘Deep’

Katy Steinmetz, writing for The Washington Post (via Mignon Fogarty):

But lately, one meaning has become trendier than the rest. Close ties to artificial intelligence have led to a surge in “deep” being used for AI-related endeavors, to the point that the word is fast becoming shorthand for “cutting-edge tech” — and is already starting to feel derivative. In 2025, “deep” is to the tech world what the plus sign (+) became a few years ago to streaming platforms such as AppleTV+, Disney+ and Paramount+.

It’s been confusing keeping track of the various deeps, just in the AI space alone:

  • DeepSeek — The Chinese AI lab that made waves with the launch of their “open reasoning” LLM R1 a month ago.
  • DeepMind — Google’s AI research lab, whose Gemini began offering a feature called “Deep Research” in December. The feature “uses AI to explore complex topics on your behalf and provide you with findings in a comprehensive, easy-to-read report.”
  • “Deep Research” — Also the name of a new feature OpenAI announced February 2, currently available exclusively to $200/month Pro users: “An agent that uses reasoning to synthesize large amounts of online information and complete multi-step research tasks for you.”
  • “Deep Research” — Also the name of a new feature from Perplexity, announced February 14: “When you ask a Deep Research question, Perplexity performs dozens of searches, reads hundreds of sources, and reasons through the material to autonomously deliver a comprehensive report.”
  • “DeepSearch” — New feature xAI announced this week alongside their very impressive new Grok 3 model, currently available in “beta”, ambitiously described as “a lightning-fast AI agent built to relentlessly seek the truth across the entire corpus of human knowledge.”
  • Deep Blue — The OG AI “deep” name holder, IBM’s chess-playing supercomputer that famously beat then-world champion Garry Kasparov in a six-game match in 1997.
  • Deep Thoughts — Long-running Saturday Night Live bit from the great Jack Handey, a new one of which ran in last week’s SNL 50th anniversary special.

Update, 26 February: Another one! “Think Deeper” is Microsoft Copilot’s feature that’s basically what most other AI apps call “Deep Research”.

★ Saturday, 22 February 2025