DeepSeek is decoding Chinese destiny

UNIVERSITY lecturer Wang always thought her son’s name was not properly aligned with his “five elements” – wood, fire, earth, metal and water – potentially causing him trouble in later life. 

To fix this, the 34-year-old would once have had to hire an expensive master of “BaZi”, or the Four Pillars of Destiny – the traditional Chinese system of fortune telling.

Today, however, there is DeepSeek, the home-grown AI model whose sympathetic use of the Chinese language has proved surprisingly adept at BaZi – a form of astrology that uses a person’s birth time and other details to determine the balance of the five elements and other aspects of their destiny.