Do you have to pay for a course to use DeepSeek? Beware of using new technology to sell anxiety

Rumor: "Do you need to buy a course to learn DeepSeek before you can use it freely?"

There are many course vendors online who claim that DeepSeek, like many other large models in the past, requires careful study of prompt word skills before it can be used freely. Many friends who are interested in AI have paid to buy it.

Rumor Analysis

This statement is not correct.

Don't buy these courses. On the one hand, many of these courses are made up of old prompt word techniques, which are not innovative at all, and there are many free channels for downloading. On the other hand, advanced large language model products such as DeepSeek no longer require "old" prompt word rules for ordinary users to communicate in daily use. Now all major mainstream AI can communicate with them directly in natural language, and "understanding human language and speaking human language" has become the standard for AI.

This Spring Festival, DeepSeek has made the technology circle celebrate the New Year in a lively manner (learning diligently and working hard). We are excited about the technological breakthroughs, encouraged by the rise of domestic large models, and happy for the efficiency improvement brought by AI-assisted work...

But there are also some people who feel crisis and anxiety about the epoch-making changes brought about by new technologies and new tools.

Yes, anxiety is also a normal emotion for human beings and an indispensable basis for our survival during hundreds of thousands of years of evolution.

But there is a small group of people who use anxiety as a sickle, and ordinary people like us are easily fooled.

After the Spring Festival, a piece of news attracted everyone's attention and discussion - the people who sold DeepSeek courses had taken advantage of this wave of technology boom and made their first pot of gold.

Not to mention the major e-commerce platforms, but also the self-media platforms, a large number of DeepSeek tutorials have emerged both online and offline, with prices ranging from a few yuan to thousands of yuan, and some selling thousands or tens of thousands of copies, becoming very popular.

Please note that the following examples are just to show you how crazy the courses are being sold now. Don’t buy any of them! Don’t buy any of them!! Don’t buy any of them!!!

The picture is taken from the e-commerce area of ​​a certain platform. Many media have reported on this, reminding the general public that there is no need to spend money to buy DeepSeek courses. It can be seen that this business is really a bit deceptive.

Image from CCTV News

We would also like to talk to you here - why we do not recommend you to spend money to learn DeepSeek. The main reasons are as follows.

Piecing together knowledge and creating anxiety

According to many netizens who have purchased the course, most of the tutorials are made up of past online information, all of which are public knowledge, and they repeat the same routines, old wine in new bottles. Some are even Chatgpt courses from the past two years with a new name.

In fact, the free high-quality information on the Internet is enough for ordinary people to use. For example, many sellers sell a document from the Tsinghua University New Media Research Center, which is actually released for free by the team. Image from this PPT

Or, we can think clearly if we pat our heads. How can so many diverse courses emerge overnight? It’s the New Year, and experts and scholars need to rest.

Instead of being cheated by information asymmetry, we might as well pay more attention to the media accounts of several professional institutions, teams and experts, such as WeChat public accounts, Zhihu, Weibo accounts, etc. If there is important content, it will be convenient for us to obtain first-hand sources of information. It is free and efficient, so why not do it?

(You can even let DeepSeek give you a list. You can see DeepSeek's reasoning process in the picture below)

Image taken from DeepSeek interactive interface

These course vendors are not only good at putting together teaching materials, but also well versed in anxiety marketing. The recent headlines such as "DeepSeek made me earn 100,000 in 5 days", "College students made 120,000 using DeepSeek", and "People who don't know AI will be eliminated" are precisely the psychological bombs they carefully designed.

Under the mass production of the self-media assembly line, AI courses are forcibly tied to the promise of "monthly income of X million". However, the reality is far from as easy as the advertisements portray - some buyers have invested time and money and bluntly said that the courses "do not work". In fact, when users try to ask questions using the "get rich quick instructions" taught in the course, AI often gives down-to-earth answers such as "suggestions to establish financial habits", cruelly exposing the shortcut lies.

In fact, if you ask the AI ​​directly and input “Tell me how to get rich quickly”, the AI ​​will reply: “It is recommended to establish a habit of financial accounting first…”

This reminds us: AI is a production tool, not a wishing well.

Just like you can't expect a microwave oven to automatically make Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, don't imagine that you can get the secret to life by typing "I want to succeed".

Natural language: the "secret code" between humans and AI

In the past, the quality of the prompt words would directly determine the results given by AI, and at that time it might be necessary to invest a certain amount of energy in researching the prompt words.

However, the threshold for using AI products in the new technology iteration cycle has been greatly reduced. Currently, most conversational AI applications only require us to communicate with AI using natural language.

In an interview with CCTV News, Bao Ran, Vice Chairman of the Interactive Media Standards Promotion Committee of the China Communications Standards Association and an expert in Internet and information technology, also gave his stamp of approval to the audience:

Ordinary users do not need to buy so-called tutorials, because after the technological iteration, advanced large language model products like DeepSeek, ordinary users no longer need the "old" prompt word rules to communicate in daily use. Now all major mainstream AI can communicate with them directly in natural language, and "understanding human language and speaking human language" has become the standard configuration of AI.

Just imagine it as your teacher or classmate, and you can communicate with them in multiple rounds if you have any questions.

There is almost no need for engineering thinking, nor is there any need to be able to write code or have studied computer technology.

The so-called "intelligence" is reflected here.

It's just like using a search engine, or even simpler than a search engine - because it won't give you a list of hundreds or thousands of answers that you have to check and choose from, and it won't recommend ads to you (yet).

Do you remember that 20 years ago, we had to go to a "computer training class" to learn computers, and even to take classes to learn typing? Thinking about it now, it's simply a fantasy.

Today's "Wubi Typing Manuals" in the AI ​​era are nothing more than a beautiful PPT shell for public information.

The greatness of DeepSeek lies in the fact that it uses natural language dialogue to tear down the last technical wall. Now even my mother, who is over 60 years old, can command AI to write square dance formation plans ("We need a song by Phoenix Legend, 16 people, and the formation must have the word 'longevity'"), but some courses are still teaching "how to correctly input question marks" - this is like someone selling swimming lessons standing by the children's pool and charging them to teach how to hold their breath - it's unnecessary.

Let's do an experiment: if you type "help me write a poem" in the dialog box, AI may give a mediocre "spring breeze blows and the flowers are fragrant"; but if you change it to "write an acrostic poem for an eight-year-old child, the first letter of each sentence is "Happy Chinese New Year", and it must contain panda elements", you can instantly get a masterpiece full of childlike fun. See, this is the most magical thing about DeepSeek - it does not require you to understand programming terms, as long as you can "speak human language" to stimulate your potential.

The best teacher is DeepSeek itself

I have read several of these so-called popular tutorials on the Internet. In fact, you can get answers to most of the content by asking DeepSeek, and they may even be more concise and clear - after all, DeepSeek has not yet learned the advanced "reporting skills" of drawing a bunch of abstract PPT frameworks and complicating simple problems.

The single most important tip for writing prompts is to quantify your needs and provide context.

For example, if you ask "Please recommend a restaurant for me", the effect will definitely not be as good as "Tomorrow is the day for my college classmates and I to have a reunion. There are 20 of us who want to have a meal together to reminisce about the past. Please recommend a restaurant within the Fourth Ring Road of Beijing, with an average price of less than 200 yuan per person and a private room for more than 10 people."
Moreover, DeepSeek has a bonus experience - it shows the derivation process of the thought chain, showing the thinking path like a math teacher writing on the blackboard.

You can see how it breaks down the problem step by step and which key elements are considered in each link.

After reading, if you find any deviation from your expectations, you can tell it in time and correct it.

You see, in fact, this is a form of externalization of the debugging process (finding code vulnerabilities during programming), and it is readable and understandable to everyone.
This "external thinking chain" design is like broadcasting the cooking steps of a Michelin chef to you live.

A programmer friend shared his learning experience: when DeepSeek was asked to explain the code, he asked "I am a primary school student", and the AI ​​used the metaphor of "variables are like piggy banks" to enlighten him. This learning mode with real-time feedback and dynamic adjustment is ten times more efficient than any recorded course.
Instead of panning for gold in the sand among the paid courses that are mixed with fake ones, it is better to ask DeepSeek directly - if this is not "Learn DeepSeek in Five Minutes", then what is it?

Image taken from DeepSeek interactive interface

We always fantasize about the existence of some kind of "mysterious switch", but we are unwilling to believe that the best teacher is hidden in the dialog box.

Moreover, DeepSeek's official website also provides an example library of prompt words. You can imitate a few cases and try to summarize the rules. I believe you will soon be able to find the key.

(DeepSeek official tip library)

Conclusion: Let AI return to its tool nature

Looking back at the history of technology, it is always surprisingly similar: the steam engine in the 19th century gave rise to the "boiler operator certificate training class", the popularization of computers in the 1990s brought about the "Wubi input method crash course", and now in the AI ​​era, we see the "prompt word engineer certification". These courses are like the "fruit tray" in the supermarket - the truly valuable content may not be as thick as the plastic packaging.

But this time may be different. DeepSeek and others are evolving in weeks, compressing the learning cost into the small space of a dialog box. When we find that a 70-year-old can use AI to create landscape poems, and that elementary school students can direct it to design scientific experiments, we should understand that what prevents us from mastering AI is never the lack of courses, but the "technological awe" that has not yet been broken.

So, please clear out those "AI secrets" in your shopping cart and ask DeepSeek your first question now! You should know that the most powerful learning system is already in place - it is not in the paid courses, but in your courage to press the enter key every time.

When a course claims that "you can gain 50,000 followers in three days by using DeepSeek", what they don't tell you is that they are gaining 50,000 followers by selling anxiety and courses. When sellers promote "getting rich quickly through AI quantitative trading", they deliberately avoid market risks and model limitations.

In this era of information explosion, it is more important to stay awake than to learn AI: DeepSeek is indeed a productivity accelerator, but it cannot replace human judgment. Instead of buying "quick-learning tips" out of anxiety, it is better to treat AI as a 24-hour online learning partner - after all, even a 70-year-old grandfather of a relative can master DeepSeek through natural conversation, so why should you spend money to buy a "cognitive gap" that does not exist?

Next time you see an ad for "Three days to win with AI", you might as well open DeepSeek and type: "Please use the melody of "The Lone Ranger" to create a song that exposes the scam of unscrupulous AI courses." Believe me, the answers generated by AI will be more exciting than any paid course.

Looking in the mirror of rumors

With the emergence of various large models and artificial intelligence applications, there are always people who deify tools as shortcuts to success by creating "technological panic" and "promises of getting rich quickly", and create a tense atmosphere of "if you don't learn AI, you will be eliminated", and use the information gap to sell courses for profit. These so-called courses will piece together outdated materials, plagiarize free reports, and even plagiarize official guidelines, and are completely not worth buying.

We only need to remember two principles to avoid being fooled. First, the threshold for various AI products for the general public will only get lower and lower as they develop, and it will become less and less necessary to learn complex prompt word skills. Second, many AI products can answer users' questions and provide guidance very well, and there is no need to purchase additional so-called tutorials.

Planning and production

Author: Mumu, a senior product manager majoring in mathematics at Beijing Normal University and an AI entrepreneur

Review | Yu Naigong Head of Robotics Engineering at Beijing University of Technology, Director of Robotics Research Center at Beijing Institute of Artificial Intelligence, PhD Supervisor