The future looks like the past: What DeepSeek means for the AI Ecosystem

TL;DR… A near future could see much SaaS based Edtech AI made redundant: replaced with locally installed, fine-tuned edu AI that is made accessible through an AI wrapper specifically designed and tailored for educational use. This exists today in Mecha.

I built Mecha as a LLM management layer designed for education. It is locally installed, under the control of education organisations, with privacy and sharing of edu Apps built in. It gives schools the same (or better) capabilities as edu SaaS tools, without the cost or privacy impacts.

We are wondering if an Open Source AI Management Layer for LLMs that simplifies what is needed to make something like Deepseek (and other commercial LLM’s) operational for education should be made available? 

SaaS software trades off localisation, control and privacy for cost savings and capabilities. DeepSeek marks a shift in the trade-offs being made - maybe reaching a tipping point for AI in education sooner than we thought. We may be at the point already where the cost and convenience of SaaS no longer outpaces that for installing and managing the full stack locally. 

The local full stack involves a LLM education management layer (or LLM Wrapper) which can offer what SaaS or co-pilots do for education plus comprehensive management services for costs, LLM selection and updates, content moderation, prompt management, agent creation and RAG prebuilt with Australian Curriculum and localisation options.

This is needed because education is different to many commercial activities and the optimisations being developed for the majority of general LLM uses means they are not optimised for local educational needs. This will also be the case for open source LLMs also.

There are many potential benefits from such an approach. The rise of open source models paves the way for educator-led fine-tuning that can be shared amongst groups of schools or across school systems. This is built into Mecha through sharing agents, automations and starter prompts for common educational activities. 

The two key components to enable this shift - high quality Open Source LLM and AI management layer for education - exist right now. Mecha was built with this end in mind and it behoves us to have a crack at taking control of our own AI destiny.

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