How A.I. Chatbots Like ChatGPT and DeepSeek Reason

 

An illustrative image showing the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT on a smartphone in San Francisco. In September of last year, Open AI released a new “reasoning” version of its ChatGPT chatbot that was designed to spend time “thinking” through complex problems before settling on an answer. Now other companies like Google, Anthropic and China’s DeepSeek offer similar technologies. — KELSEY MCCLELLAN/NYT

In September, OpenAI unveiled a new version of ChatGPT designed to reason through tasks involving math, science and computer programming. Unlike previous versions of the chatbot, this new technology could spend time “thinking” through complex problems before settling on an answer.

Soon, the company said its new reasoning technology had outperformed the industry’s leading systems on a series of tests that track the progress of artificial intelligence.

Now other companies, like Google, Anthropic and China’s DeepSeek, offer similar technologies.

But can AI actually reason like a human? What does it mean for a computer to think? Are these systems really approaching true intelligence?

Here is a guide.

What does it mean when an AI system reasons?

Reasoning just means that the chatbot spends some additional time working on a problem.

“Reasoning is when the system does extra work after the question is asked,” said Dan Klein, a professor of computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, and chief technology officer of Scaled Cognition, an AI startup.

It may break a problem into individual steps or try to solve it through trial and error.

The original ChatGPT answered questions immediately. The new reasoning systems can work through a problem for several seconds – or even minutes – before answering.

Can you be more specific?

In some cases, a reasoning system will refine its approach to a question, repeatedly trying to improve the method it has chosen. Other times, it may try several different ways of approaching a problem before settling on one of them. Or it may go back and check some work it did a few seconds before, just to see if it was correct.

Basically, the system tries whatever it can to answer your question.

This is kind of like a grade school student who is struggling to find a way to solve a math problem and scribbles several different options on a sheet of paper.

What sort of questions require an AI system to reason?

It can potentially reason about anything. But reasoning is most effective when you ask questions involving math, science and computer programming.

How is a reasoning chatbot different from earlier chatbots?

You could ask earlier chatbots to show you how they had reached a particular answer or to check their own work. Because the original ChatGPT had learned from text on the internet, where people showed how they had gotten to an answer or checked their own work, it could do this kind of self-reflection, too.

But a reasoning system goes further. It can do these kinds of things without being asked. And it can do them in more extensive and complex ways.

Companies call it a reasoning system because it feels as if it operates more like a person thinking through a hard problem.

Why is AI reasoning important now?

Companies like OpenAI believe this is the best way to improve their chatbots.

For years, these companies relied on a simple concept: The more internet data they pumped into their chatbots, the better those systems performed.

But in 2024, they used up almost all of the text on the internet.

That meant they needed a new way of improving their chatbots. So they started building reasoning systems.

How do you build a reasoning system?

Last year, companies like OpenAI began to lean heavily on a technique called reinforcement learning.

Through this process – which can extend over months – an AI system can learn behavior through extensive trial and error. By working through thousands of math problems, for instance, it can learn which methods lead to the right answer and which do not.

Researchers have designed complex feedback mechanisms that show the system when it has done something right and when it has done something wrong.

“It is a little like training a dog,” said Jerry Tworek, an OpenAI researcher. “If the system does well, you give it a cookie. If it doesn’t do well, you say, ‘Bad dog’.”

(The New York Times sued OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, in December for copyright infringement of news content related to AI systems.)

Does reinforcement learning work?

It works pretty well in certain areas, like math, science and computer programming. These are areas where companies can clearly define the good behavior and the bad. Math problems have definitive answers.

Reinforcement learning doesn’t work as well in areas like creative writing, philosophy and ethics, where the distinction between good and bad is harder to pin down. Researchers say this process can generally improve an AI system’s performance, even when it answers questions outside math and science.

“It gradually learns what patterns of reasoning lead it in the right direction and which don’t,” said Jared Kaplan, chief science officer at Anthropic.

Are reinforcement learning and reasoning systems the same thing?

No. Reinforcement learning is the method that companies use to build reasoning systems. It is the training stage that ultimately allows chatbots to reason.

Do these reasoning systems still make mistakes?

Absolutely. Everything a chatbot does is based on probabilities. It chooses a path that is most like the data it learned from – whether that data came from the internet or was generated through reinforcement learning. Sometimes it chooses an option that is wrong or does not make sense.

Is this a path to a machine that matches human intelligence?

AI experts are split on this question. These methods are still relatively new, and researchers are still trying to understand their limits. In the AI field, new methods often progress very quickly at first, before slowing down. – ©2025 The New York Times Company

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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De-dollarisation - Digital renminbi RMB, (数字人民币 Chinese Yuan)

 

 

Digital renminbi 

BIG BREAKING

the People's Bank of China suddenly announced that the digital RMB (Renminbi, Chinese Yuan) cross-border settlement system will be fully connected to the ten ASEAN countries and six Middle Eastern countries, which means that 38% of the world's trade volume will bypass the SWIFT system dominated by the US dollar and directly enter the "digital RMB moment". This financial game, which The Economist called the "Bretton Woods System 2.0 Outpost Battle", is rewriting the underlying code of the global economy with blockchain technology.

While the SWIFT system is still struggling with the 3-5 day delay in cross-border payments, the digital currency bridge developed by China has compressed the clearing speed to 7 seconds. In the first test between Hong Kong and Abu Dhabi, a company paid a Middle Eastern supplier through digital RMB. The funds no longer went through six intermediary banks, but were received in real time through a distributed ledger, and the handling fee dropped by 98%. This "lightning payment" capability makes the traditional clearing system dominated by the US dollar instantly look clumsy.

What makes the West even more frightened is the technical moat of China's digital currency. The blockchain technology used by the digital RMB not only makes transactions traceable, but also automatically enforces anti-money laundering rules. In the China-Indonesia "Two Countries, Two Parks" project, Industrial Bank used digital RMB to complete the first cross-border payment, which took only 8 seconds from order confirmation to funds arrival, 100 times more efficient than traditional methods. This technical advantage has enabled 23 central banks around the world to actively join the digital currency bridge test, among which Middle Eastern energy traders have reduced settlement costs by 75%.

The deep impact of this technological revolution lies in the reconstruction of financial sovereignty. When the United States tried to sanction Iran with SWIFT, China had already built a closed loop of RMB payments in Southeast Asia. Data shows that the cross-border RMB settlement volume of ASEAN countries exceeded 5.8 trillion yuan in 2024, an increase of 120% over 2021. Six countries including Malaysia and Singapore have included RMB in their foreign exchange reserves, and Thailand has completed the first oil settlement with digital RMB. This wave of "de-dollarization" made the Bank for International Settlements exclaim: "China is defining the rules of the game in the era of digital currency."

But what really shocked the world was China's strategic layout. Digital RMB is not only a payment tool, but also a technical carrier of the "Belt and Road" strategy. In projects such as the China-Laos Railway and the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway, the digital RMB is deeply integrated with Beidou navigation and quantum communication to build a "Digital Silk Road". When European car companies use digital RMB to settle freight through the Arctic route, China is using blockchain technology to increase trade efficiency by 400%. This virtual-real strategy makes the US dollar hegemony feel a systemic threat for the first time.

Today, 87% of countries in the world have completed the adaptation of the digital RMB system, and the scale of cross-border payments has exceeded 1.2 trillion US dollars. While the United States is still debating whether digital currency threatens the status of the US dollar, China has quietly built a digital payment network covering 200 countries. This silent financial revolution is not only about monetary sovereignty, but also determines who can control the lifeline of the future global economy!


👉 This is very big news  It means De-dollarisation in a big way. It can completely re-set the world

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HAPPINESS IS A HABIT TO BE NURTURED

The Practice and Habit of Happiness

How to Be Happy: 12 Habits to Add to Your Routine

 IF you do an online search of the question, “What is happiness?”, there’s every chance your search engine will request emergency leave for the rest of the day. This deceptive and slippery question assumes happiness is singular and definable, ignoring its subjectivity, cultural differences, and transient nature.

Happiness can be a fleeting emotion from a burst of joy when receiving good news. Other times, it’s a mood – a general sense of positivity that lasts for hours or days. More broadly, it can be a state of being influenced by life circumstances, personal values, and our environment.

Some people assume happiness is a feeling that comes and goes, rather than something we can create for ourselves. A new book on the topic invites us to question this assumption. Written by Prof Alvin Ng and Janessa Tan, Happiness: Mastering the 5Gs For an Enhanced You (2025), serves as an insightful companion on how we can create “micro moments of joy” and build our personal happiness fund.

The “5Gs of happiness” are greeting, giving, gratitude, glorifying skilfulness in others, and giggling. At first glance, these seem obvious. Say “Hello” to people. Be generous. Express thanks. Acknowledge others’ strengths. Laugh more. It sounds simple, but nowadays we’re often so caught up in the busyness of living that we forget these qualities that are crucial to maintaining connections, friendships, and our well-being.

When did you last enjoy a genuine laugh? Not the polite kind, but the deep, unrestrained kind that momentarily dissolves life’s worries. When was the last time you expressed admiration to a colleague, friend, or your partner? These micro moments of joy add up, subtly influencing how we engage with others.

At the book launch last month, Ng spoke about these ideas with his trademark dry wit. He, like me, doesn’t consider himself the most naturally joyful person. But we both recognise the value of creating and sharing moments of happiness.

Giggling, for example, might seem like a small thing, but it has profound effects. Laughter isn’t just a social nicety; it helps relieve stress and tension. During the launch, I was thinking about the importance of laughter and playfulness. Play isn’t just for children. Psychologists like Donald Winnicott and Mihály Csíkszentmihályi have shown that play fosters creativity, reduces stress, and enriches engagement with life. We lose something essential when we take life too seriously.

Many of us have been conditioned to see happiness as secondary to productivity. We prioritise deadlines, responsibilities, and efficiency, often at the cost of connection. But happiness and success aren’t mutually exclusive. Research shows that positive emotions increase creativity, resilience, and workplace performance.

The challenge is that happiness isn’t passive – it requires effort. This is where Ng and Tan’s book comes in handy. It’s a practical guide to integrating well-being into everyday life. It doesn’t promise a life without hardship. Instead, it offers a roadmap to finding moments of joy amid the ups and downs.

Giving is a prime example. Even a small act – checking in on a friend, buying someone a coffee, offering a word of encouragement – can create a ripple effect. Generosity fuels connection, and connection is central to well-being.

Glorifying skilfulness in others is another overlooked aspect of happiness. In competitive environments, we often focus on our own achievements. But when we take the time to recognise others’ strengths, we build relationships focused on appreciation rather than rivalry.

Gratitude is perhaps the most familiar of the 5Gs. But knowing its importance and practising it are two different things. Studies suggests that actively expressing gratitude – not just feeling it – increases life satisfaction. A simple “Thank you” can strengthen connections and shift our focus from what we lack to what we have.

Then there’s greeting. In a digital age where communication is often reduced to texts and emails, a sincere, in-person greeting carries weight. It signals recognition, fosters warmth, and strengthens bonds. Offering a smileora friendly nod can brighten someone’s day.

Given the rise in rates of loneliness and disconnection over the past decade,

Happiness is a timely reminder that these problems won’t fix themselves. Reading this book is a reminder that happiness isn’t a luxury – it’s a necessity, and it’s something we can create.

Of course, life will never be free from difficulty. Stress and setbacks are part of our experience – and that’s precisely why these moments of happiness matter. They don’t erase hardships, but they provide balance. They remind us that even in difficult times, joy is still possible.

For those sceptical about selfhelp books, this one is refreshingly down-to-earth. Ng and Tan don’t offer unrealistic promises of enduring bliss. Instead, they acknowledge that happiness is a practice – a habit to be nurtured. Their reflections, drawn from psychology, personal experience, and Buddhist philosophy, offer a realistic approach to well-being.

But just reading their book won’t change much. By applying and sharing the ideas found in Happiness, perhaps we can become happier over time, not just in fleeting bursts, but in ways that last.- -   Sandy Clarke

Sandy Clarke has long held an interest in emotions, mental health, mindfulness and meditation. He believes the more we understand ourselves and each other, the better societies we can create. If you have any questions or comments, e-mail lifestyle@thestar.com.my. The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.

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Trump tariffs pile stress on ailing world economy; China to impose tariffs of 34% on all US goods from April 10

US President Donald Trump. — Reuters

The latest round of US trade tariffs unveiled on Wednesday will sap yet more vigour from a world economy barely recovered from the post-pandemic inflation surge, weighed down by record debt and unnerved by geopolitical strife.

Depending on how President Donald Trump and leaders of other nations proceed now, it may also go down as a turning point for a globalised system which until now had taken for granted the strength and reliability of America, its largest component.

“Trump’s tariffs carry the risk of destroying the global free-trade order the United States itself has spear-headed since the Second World War,” said Takahide Kiuchi, chief economist at Nomura Research Institute.

But in coming months it will be the plain and simple price-hiking – and therefore demand-dampening – effects of new levies applied to thousands of goods bought and sold by consumers and businesses across the planet that will prevail.

“I see it as a drift of the US and global economy towards worse performance, more uncertainty and possibly heading towards something we could call a global recession,” said Antonio Fatas, macroeconomist at the Insead business school in France.

“We are moving into a world which is worse for everyone because it is more inefficient,” said Fatas, who has acted as a consultant for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.

Speaking in the White House Rose Garden, Trump said he would impose a 10% baseline tariff on all imports and held up a chart showing higher duties on some of the country’s biggest trading partners, including 34% on China and 20% on the European Union.

A 25% auto and auto-parts tariff was confirmed earlier.

Trump said the tariffs would return strategically vital manufacturing capabilities to the United States.

Under the new global levies imposed by Trump, the US tariff rate on all imports jumped to 22% – a rate last seen around 1910 – from just 2.5% last year, said Olu Sonola, head of US economic research at Fitch Ratings.

“This is a game changer, not only for the US economy but for the global economy,” Sonola said. “Many countries will likely end up in a recession.”

IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva told a Reuters event this week she did not see global recession for now.

She added the IMF expected shortly to make a small downward “correction” to its forecast of 3.3% global growth this year.

Different impact

But the impact on national economies is set to diverge widely, given the spectrum of tariffs ranging from 10% for Britain to 49% to Cambodia.

If the result is a wider trade war, that would have even larger repercussions for producers like China, which would be left hunting for new markets in the face of wilting consumer demand across the globe.

And if the tariffs push the United States itself towards recession, that will weigh heavily on developing countries whose fortunes are closely tied to those of the world’s largest economy.

“What happens in the United States doesn’t stay in the United States,” said Barry Eichengreen, professor of economics and political science at the University of California, Berkeley.

“The economy is too big and too connected to the rest of the world via trade and capital flows for the rest of the world to be unaffected.”

The knock-on effects for policy-makers in central banks and governments are also potentially large.

An unravelling of the supply chains which for years kept a lid on prices for consumers could lead to a world in which inflation tends to run “hotter” than the 2% which central bankers currently agree is a manageable target to aim for.

That would complicate decisions for the Bank of Japan, which may face pressure to combat too-high inflation with more interest rate hikes just as its major counterparts eye cuts, and as its export-reliant economy takes a hit from US duties.

Auto exporters Japan, hit with a 24% reciprocal tariff rate, and South Korea, which was imposed a 25% rate, have signalled plans to take emergency measures to support businesses hit by the higher US levies.

Economies with weaker output growth would leave governments struggling even more to pay down the world’s record US$318 trillion debt load and find money for budget priorities ranging from defence spending to climate action and welfare.

And what if the tariffs do not bring about Trump’s oft-stated goal of encouraging business to invest in domestic US manufacturing, given the domestic labour shortages already facing a country with close to full employment?

Some see him seeking other ways to remove the US global trade deficit that riles him so much – for example by demanding that others join in a re-balancing of foreign exchange rates to the advantage of US exporters.

Risky moves

“We are going to continue to see him putting out there potentially more risky ways of dealing with the continuous strength of the US dollar,” said Freya Beamish, chief economist at investment strategy firm TS Lombard.

Such moves could jeopardise the privileged position of the US dollar as the world reserve currency of choice – an outcome few predict, if only because there are for now no real alternatives to the US dollar.

Nonetheless, European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde on Wednesday told an event in Ireland that Europe needed to act now and accelerate economic reforms to compete in what she called an “inverted world”.

“Everyone benefited from a hegemon, the United States, that was committed to a multilateral, rules-based order,” she said of the post-Cold War era of low inflation and growing trade in an open global economy.

“Today we must contend with closure, fragmentation and uncertainty.” — Reuters

Mark John, Francesco Canepa and Leika Kihara write for Reuters. The views expressed here are the writers’ own.

China to impose tariffs of 34% on all US goods from April 10

The Chinese national flag is seen in Beijing, China April 29, 2020. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo

BEIJING: China on Friday announced a slew of additional tariffs and restrictions against U.S. goods as a countermeasure to sweeping tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

The Finance Ministry said it would impose additional tariffs of 34% on all U.S. goods from April 10.

Beijing also announced controls on exports of medium and heavy rare-earths, including samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium and yttrium to the United States, effective April 4.

"The purpose of the Chinese government's implementation of export controls on relevant items in accordance with the law is to better safeguard national security and interests, and to fulfill international obligations such as non-proliferation," the Commerce Ministry said in a statement.

It also added 11 entities to the "unreliable entity" list, which allows Beijing to take punitive actions against foreign entities. - Reuters 

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Cheng Ming Festival – April 4, 2025

 

This year, the Ching Ming Festival will be marked on April 4. The festival is usually observed 15 days after the spring equinox, calculated from the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar. It falls on day one of the fifth solar term. The day is also called Chinese Memorial Day, Tomb-Sweeping Day, and Ancestors Day. On this day, Chinese families visit and clean the tombs of their deceased family members. A few festival activities include tomb cleaning, praying to the ancestors, burning joss sticks and paper, and making ritual offerings. Read on to learn more about this cultural  significant holiday 

Qing Ming : A Heartfelt Homage to Our Loved Ones

Qing Ming falls on April 4th this year, while Chun-She is on March 20th.

Some families have already begun preparing for tomb-sweeping and ancestor worship. Especially for new interments (less than 1 year), it is considered an ideal time for families to visit the grave and pay homage from March 8th to 19th.

Xiao En Memorial Park Nilai is open all year round! Families who wish to pay their respects earlier are welcome to visit. Thoughtful planning for Qing Ming allows for a calm and meaningful experience, reminding us that our bond with our loved ones transcends life and death.

Qing Ming Prayer Schedule

Since Qing Ming is not a public holiday in Malaysia, we recommend avoiding peak periods or visiting outside the 10 days before and after Qing Ming for a smoother experience.

Important Notice: Hari Raya falls on March 31st – April 1st, and major highways are expected to be congested during the weekends surrounding these dates. We encourage early planning to ensure a smooth journey.

With the recent hot and rainy weather, please remember to bring an umbrella and hat, stay hydrated, and wash hands frequently.