Italy Blocks Chinese Chatbot DeepSeek

The Italian regulator has obstructed a Chinese application with integrated synthetic intelligence DeepSeek.

This was reported by the local regulator Garante.

The emergency situation order entered into impact right away to safeguard the personal data of Italians.

The choice comes two days after Italy sent out a demand about how DeepSeek uses users’ individual information. The local regulator asked what data is gathered, why, and whether it is kept in China. However, the Chinese company’s response was deemed “entirely insufficient”. They stated they do not operate in Italy which European law does not apply to them.

The DeepSeek app has been missing out on from digital stores in Italy since January 29. The web variation, however, stayed readily available – and it is still available today.

The Italian newspaper la Repubblica composes that the primary page of DeepSeek states that usersʼ personal data is stored on servers in China, the material of chats with the bot can be used to train its algorithms, and the service ought to not be utilized by children under 14. However, the Italian regulator asked for extra details, which it did not get.

What is DeepSeek?

On January 27, DeepSeek overtook ChatGPT to become the most popular free app on the App Store. On the exact same day, the Chinese chatbot underwent a large-scale cyberattack.

DeepSeek was founded in 2023 by Liang Wenfeng, a 40-year-old graduate of the School of Information and Electronic Engineering. He established a store for Nvidia A100 chips, which are now prohibited from being exported to China. Media reports recommend that this might have triggered him to introduce DeepSeek, combining those chips with less expensive, lower-end ones that are still readily available for import.

DeepSeek is based on the open-source DeepSeek-V3 design. Some specialists state that the design was developed for less than $6 million spend much more. However, other experts contest this info.