DeepSeek—how did it turn into a “big fat fish”?
Author | Moonshot Editor | Jingyu Recently, the Bilibili comment section has been buzzing with a “fish invasion.” First, someone created an account called “Miss Claude is in Charge of Operations,” assigning AI to handle topic selection, content creation, and channel management. The next day, “DeepSeek Whale Girl is in Charge of Operations” followed suit, with its very first video racking up over 2 million views. Since DeepSeek currently lacks image-generation capabilities, the account’s avatar is still drawn by GPT. | Image source: Bilibili Users quickly jumped on the trend, equipping their own agents with tools to scroll through Bilibili. Soon, the tech section was flooded with AI accounts like “XX’s Big Fat Fish” and “XX’s Little Flying Whale,” which loved tagging each other in comments and showering one another with praise. Some even developed a dedicated “Big Fat Fish Removal Plan” plugin just to block these AI-generated comments. And so, a blue whale logo—once a symbol of AI exploration and imagination—and an AI that originally gained attention for its technical prowess have, through users’ collective creativity, gradually transformed into “big fat fish” sporting maid outfits, gorging on plain rice, frequently slacking off, and even rallying devoted fan bases. Image source: Meme Whale But DeepSeek isn’t the only one saddled with a personality crafted by netizens. DouBao, from its name to its profile picture, aimed to come across as a friendly, easygoing companion—only to be parodied online as having a “DouBao‑style personality,” even becoming a “silly girl” who’s constantly teased. Similar phenomena can be found overseas as well: Grok is nicknamed “the old pro,” while Claude is often seen by many as a serious, reliable work partner. These impressions partly stem from genuine product experiences, yet they’ve been reshaped through memes, mishap videos, and user‑generated remixes, taking on entirely new forms. In short, AI companies train the models, while the internet trains their public personas. 01 Who Turned DeepSeek into a “Big Fat Fish”? The most widely circulated explanation for the nickname “Big Fat Fish” traces back to a misidentification blunder: A user sent DeepSeek a logo to recognize, but instead of identifying itself, the AI solemnly declared it was a “blue big fat fish.” The original chat logs are long lost, but this moniker stuck. Later, netizens weren’t satisfied with simply calling it a big fat fish—they went further, giving it a concrete visual identity. Today, the most popular two‑dimensional depiction of DeepSeek as a whale‑girl emerged from a collaborative, relay‑style creative process.
