This week, government agencies in countries including South Korea, Italy, Australia and Taiwan have blocked access to Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) startup DeepSeek’s new AI chatbot programme, mostly for government employees.
Other countries, including the United States, have said they may also seek to block DeepSeek from government employees’ mobile devices, according to media reports. All cite “security concerns” about the Chinese technology and a lack of clarity about how users’ personal information is handled by the operator.
Last month, DeepSeek made headlines after it caused share prices in US tech companies to plummet, after it claimed that its model would cost only a fraction of the money its competitors had spent on their own AI programmes to build. The news caused social media users to joke: “I can’t believe ChatGPT lost its job to AI.”
Other countries considering a DeepSeek ban
Data protection authorities in Belgium, France and Ireland are all investigating the way DeepSeek handles the personal information of its citizens, hinting that a ban may be possible in those countries. NorthKorea & India have also signalled that action may be taken against DeepSeek due to potential privacy and security infringements.
Sri Lanka not yet thinking about this issue.
What is DeepSeek?
DeepSeek is a Chinese AI startup. Based in Hangzhou city, it was founded by entrepreneur and businessman Liang Feng in 2023. Liang also founded the $7bn hedge fund group High-Flyer with two university classmates in 2016.
In January, DeepSeek released the latest model of its programme, DeepSeek R1, which is a free AI-powered chatbot with a look and feel very similar to ChatGPT, owned by California-headquartered OpenAI.
AI chatbots are computer programmes which simulate human-style conversation with a user. Users can ask the bot questions and it then generates conversational responses using information it has access to on the internet and which it has been “trained” with.
Among a plethora of potential uses, these programmes can be used to solve mathematics problems, draft text such as emails and documents, and translate or write codes.
According to DeepSeek’s privacy policy, it collects the following data from users:
- Personal information including email, phone number, password and date of birth, which are used to register for the application.
- Chat history in the application, including text or audio that the user inputs into the chatbot.
- Technical information about the user’s device and network, such as IP address, keystroke patterns and operating system.
It shares this information with service providers and advertising partners. This information is retained for “as long as necessary”, the company’s website states.
According to ChatGPT’s privacy policy, OpenAI also collects personal information such as name and contact information given while registering, device information such as IP address and input given to the chatbot “for only as long as we need”. This information may also be shared with OpenAI’s affiliates.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA News Agency.
