Senior student Wang Xuan is eager to step onto the trend of the AI era, and the 1999 yuan online course became his first tuition fee. Recently, the popularity of the domestic AI model DeepSeek has skyrocketed, and many training institutions have taken advantage of the situation to launch a large number of related online courses, attracting a group of young people who are eager to catch the AI fast train. However, behind these courses may just be knowledge payment traps set by some businesses. In early February, Wang Xuan saw a promotion on social media about DeepSeek, claiming that this domestically produced AI model could help users quickly complete copywriting, data analysis, and even investment decisions. With the idea of 'mastering future skills', he decided to spend some money on studying related courses. On a certain knowledge payment platform, Wang Xuan saw a "DeepSeek all-in-one application course" priced at 1999 yuan. The merchant claimed to have "mastered DeepSeek core skills in 15 days from beginner to master". The course also promises that students can quickly accept orders and monetize through DeepSeek, and "earning over 10000 yuan per month is not out of reach". Seeing this, he didn't hesitate to place an order. However, after the course began, Wang Xuan found that it was not as advertised. The first lesson of the course only briefly introduced the basic functions and registration process of DeepSeek, while the second lesson provided some examples of prompt words that can be found in public materials. In the third class, the instructor began to explain how to use DeepSeek for investing and trading stocks, but the content was very simple and even contained a lot of incorrect information. At the same time, Wang Xuan noticed that most of the monetization tasks mentioned in the course are low threshold jobs, such as writing simple promotional copy or organizing data tables for merchants. Not only is the compensation meager, but there are also many participants, making it difficult to accept orders. After trying several times, Wang Xuan felt that the so-called "advanced skills" he spent 1999 yuan learning did not bring substantial benefits. At first, I thought this was a trend, thinking that learning early would make money. But now it seems that this is just a game of merchants cutting leeks Wang Xuan regrets not calming down and carefully examining the course content, as he was completely moved by the exaggerated propaganda at that time. To gain a deeper understanding of the popularity of AI online courses, a reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Network conducted a survey on multiple e-commerce platforms, knowledge payment platforms, and social media platforms, and found that the number of courses related to DeepSeek in the market is astonishing, but the quality is uneven. The reporter found a large number of DeepSeek usage skills courses on a certain e-commerce platform, priced only a few yuan to tens of yuan. In the 19.8 yuan "DeepSeek Complete Tutorial" sold at a certain store, the information package mainly teaches users how to download DeepSeek software, register an account, and how to use some basic prompts. Many consumers who have already purchased courses complain in the comment section that the content is mostly pieced together from official websites or public information on social media. A shop is selling the report "DeepSeek: From Beginner to Mastery" at a discounted price of 9.8 yuan, claiming to teach users advanced skills such as task decomposition, logical chain construction, and multimodal information processing through carefully designed prompt word strategies, fully utilizing DeepSeek's reasoning and generation capabilities. In fact, the report was released free of charge on its official account by the Shenyang professor team from the School of Journalism and Communication, Tsinghua University. On February 11, the School of Journalism and Communication of Tsinghua University announced on the official account that "DeepSeek: From Beginner to Mastery" report is completely free to download and for the purpose of academic research, please carefully identify all kinds of paid download or training activities in the name of our school or relevant teachers' personal teams. " As of the time of writing, the above-mentioned store has sold nearly 2000 report documents. In some courses priced at hundreds to thousands of yuan, product detail pages often use exaggerated promotional language to entice consumers. A "DeepSeek Investment and Stock Trading Practical Course" priced at 1999 yuan on a certain e-commerce platform claims to "master DeepSeek's core skills and easily achieve financial freedom". But some people have reported in the product review section that the actual learning content is hollow and cannot achieve the expected effect. In several live broadcast booths, anchors frequently use hyperbole such as "everyone must learn DeepSeek", "AI will not be illiterate in the Internet era". They will also use marketing tactics such as "limited quota" and "limited time discounts" to urge consumers to place orders and make purchases. In order to increase the attractiveness of the courses, some teaching institutions also fabricate the halo of famous teachers to mislead consumers. For example, in a "DeepSeek self media monetization course" on a certain platform, the institution claimed that its instructors had multiple accolades such as "live streaming sales profits of over 4 million yuan" and "4 years of AI knowledge sharing experience", but customer service could not provide relevant proof documents for the so-called "successful cases" and instructor qualifications. In addition, these educational institutions also use "deceptive tactics" to attract consumers and evade platform supervision. For example, the anchor of a live streaming room for selling courses teaches some basic skills on how to use DeepSeek to memorize words under the name of "free tutorial" and "limited time experience". However, when consumers want to learn more, customer service will guide them to purchase courses on third-party platforms. During this process, consumers often find it difficult to verify the true qualifications of training institutions. Due to these transactions occurring outside of live streaming platforms, it is difficult for relevant platforms to review course content and instructor qualifications, providing opportunities for false advertising and violations. Some businesses set traps for young people through false packaging, high salary temptations, hunger marketing, and other means Xie Yongjiang, director of the Internet Governance and Law Research Center of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, said that some AI online courses have induced consumers to order courses irrationally. What if you step into a "pit"? Blue Sky, a technology industry practitioner, said that when using DeepSeek, users only need to express their needs clearly and explicitly, without cumbersome guidance or step-by-step "tricks". They can provide the required information and assign tasks to it. This efficient interaction method benefits from DeepSeek's powerful capabilities and intelligent design. Even if users lack skills, they can quickly master usage techniques and fully unleash the potential of the model through some free video tutorials on social media. Xie Yongjiang said that false advertising by educational institutions is suspected of violating the provisions of the Advertising Law of the People's Republic of China, which stipulate that "advertising content should be truthful and legal" and "must not contain false or misleading content"; If the goods are not on the same board, it violates the consumer's right to know and fair trade, and violates the Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Law of the People's Republic of China. What should consumers do if they step into a "pit"? Yao Kefeng, the director of Guobiao Law Firm, said that consumers can first negotiate with the seller, clearly state that the course quality does not match the promotion, request a refund and retain evidence. If the merchant refuses to refund, they can file a complaint with the teaching platform and provide evidence, or call 12315 to file a complaint with the Consumer Association for rights protection, or file a lawsuit with the court. When safeguarding rights, it is important to promptly retain evidence, including chat records, order screenshots, course promotional images, etc. Yao Kefeng suggested that the platform improve the review mechanism for relevant course products, such as verifying the authenticity of lecturers' professional certificates, work experience, etc., and reviewing the originality and quality of course content; Improve the after-sales guarantee mechanism, allow users to refund within a certain period of time, and provide effective complaint channels; Strengthen the supervision of merchants and crack down severely on illegal and irregular behaviors such as false advertising and wrong products. It is suggested that regulatory authorities promote the clarification of industry standards and norms to prevent businesses from exploiting loopholes, and formulate corresponding punishment rules for false advertising and inaccurate products. On February 6th, DeepSeek officially released a statement stating that the official website and official app of DeepSeek do not contain any advertisements or paid items. At present, except for the official WeChat group for DeepSeek users, no group has been established on any other platform in China, and all claims of charging related to DeepSeek official groups are counterfeit. (New Society)