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DeepSeek faces global restrictions due to privacy concerns
After its global debut and rapid surge in popularity, China’s DeepSeek AI chatbot has faced critical scrutiny and restrictions from several countries. South Korea, for example, has banned new downloads of the app through both Apple’s App Store and Google Play due to concerns about compliance with personal data protection laws.
The South Korean government agency responsible for data protection stressed that DeepSeek will be re-released to users once the necessary improvements and fixes are made.
Despite this temporary suspension, existing users can still access the chatbot through their devices or through DeepSeek’s website. This ban follows a trend of increasing global caution around DeepSeek. South Korea’s acting president described the app as a “shock” with potential implications beyond the AI sector and affecting several industries in the country.
Similar concerns have led to similar actions in other countries. Taiwan and Australia have restricted DeepSeek on all government devices, while the Italian data protection authority has issued a temporary ban, following their earlier stance on ChatGPT. The Italian regulator has demanded that DeepSeek address privacy concerns before it can return to app stores.
Across the Atlantic, lawmakers in the United States are proposing legislation to ban DeepSeek on federal devices, based on surveillance concerns. Several state governments, including Texas, Virginia and New York, have already implemented similar restrictions for their employees.
DeepSeek’s large language model has attracted attention because of its reasoning capabilities comparable to those of leading US models such as OpenAI’s GPT-3, but reportedly at significantly lower training and operational costs. This cost effectiveness has sparked discussions about the significant investments in AI infrastructure worldwide.
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