The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday, March 12, edition that Chinese mom-and-pop investors are embracing artificial intelligence tools like DeepSeek, shifting from last year's government crackdown on quantitative trading. A Reuters dispatch to The Globe reports that on-line crash courses are booming, attracting retail traders eager to leverage computer models to beat the market. DeepSeek's rise is transforming perceptions within China's $700-billion (U.S.) hedge fund industry and prompting changes at brokerages, while introducing new risks in a market dominated by small-time traders. "The future is the digital age, and AI will be vital," Hong Yangjun told a packed room of individual investors learning to trade with AI on a weekend in February. Just as future warfare will be fought with drones and robots, the stock market will be a battleground between computers, the lecturers told the class in an office in downtown Shanghai. Such piety is in stark contrast to the public outcry a year ago against computer-driven quant funds, viewed as "bloodsuckers" by retail investors, and blamed by regulators for contributing to market unfairness and volatility. High-Flyer is the hedge fund behind DeepSeek.