Chatbot vs national security? What’s going on with DeepSeek bans

Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek upended the global industry and wiped billions of US tech stocks when it unveiled its R1 programme, which it claims was built on cheap, less sophisticated Nvidia semiconductors. But now governments from Washington to Seoul are scrambling to ban the user-friendly Chinese app from official devices, saying they need to prevent potential leaks of sensitive information through generative AI services. AFP takes a look at what’s going on: Who has banned DeepSeek? First to act was Rome, which launched an investigation into DeepSeek and said it was blocking the upstart Chinese app from possessing Italian users’ data. Italy’s Data Protection Authority briefly blocked ChatGPT in 2023.