Apparently, no Chinese breakthrough goes unpunished. It’s been about one week since Chinese synthetic intelligence firm DeepSeek launched its DeepSeek-R1 mannequin that managed to rival the efficiency of American choices for a fraction of the associated fee, and now the remainder of the world is trying to put the agency underneath the microscope. Per the Wall Street Journal, Italy’s information privateness watchdog introduced Thursday that it’s launching a probe into how DeepSeek is dealing with person information—an investigation that follows within the footsteps of numerous nations which are cracking down on the corporate.
The Italian Data Protection Authority issued a restraining order towards each Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence and Beijing DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence, the 2 Chinese corporations behind the ChatGPT rival. The watchdog company raised issues over DeepSeek’s failure to reveal what private data it collects, the way it processes that information, and whether or not or not that data is being saved on servers in China. Access to DeepSeek has been blocked in Italy because the investigation is underway.
Italy isn’t the one nation with issues. Taiwan’s digital ministry suggested authorities officers to not use DeepSeek over safety issues together with potential information leakage. South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission introduced that it plans to query DeepSeek over the way it manages the non-public data of customers. France’s National Commission for Information Technology and Civil Liberties plans to probe the AI agency over information safety practices, whereas Belgium is wanting into potential GDPR violations and Ireland is asking for extra particulars on how DeepSeek handles information.
And in fact, it wouldn’t be a crackdown if America didn’t get entangled. Per Reuters, the US Commerce Department is reportedly investigating if DeepSeek has been secretly utilizing American-made chips that aren’t allowed to be shipped to China.
That appears about proper, frankly. The remainder of the world is wanting into privateness points and America needs to know if this factor goes to harm the underside line of its personal companies like Nvidia, which noticed its inventory value take a tumble as quickly as phrase hit the market that you just don’t must spend billions of {dollars} to make a practical AI mannequin. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang shall be assembly with Trump in Washington, D.C. Friday, and the 2 will certainly talk about methods to guard the corporate’s earnings from international threats like DeepSeek.
There is nice purpose to have issues over DeepSeek’s information privateness practices—as there are with principally each agency that wishes to get its fingers in your data. Security agency Wiz Research not too long ago revealed a report warning {that a} database belonging to DeepSeek was left uncovered and revealed chat histories and different probably delicate data, and Wired reported that the AI app is sending US person information to servers in China. If you’re frightened about who’s accessing your private data, it’s most likely greatest to keep away from all AI apps, whether or not they’re made by a Chinese agency or in any other case.
