Italy Blocks Chinese Chatbot DeepSeek

The Italian regulator has obstructed a Chinese application with built-in expert system DeepSeek.

This was reported by the local regulator Garante.

The emergency order came into result immediately to safeguard the personal information of Italians.

The decision comes 2 days after Italy sent out a demand about how DeepSeek uses users’ personal information. The local asked what information is collected, why, and whether it is stored in China. However, the Chinese company’s reaction was considered “totally insufficient”. They stated they do not run in Italy and that European law does not apply to them.

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

The Italian newspaper la Repubblica writes that the main page of DeepSeek states that usersʼ personal information is kept on servers in China, the content of chats with the bot can be utilized to train its algorithms, and the service must not be utilized by kids under 14. However, the Italian regulator requested additional information, which it did not get.

What is DeepSeek?

On January 27, DeepSeek surpassed ChatGPT to end up being the most popular totally free app on the App Store. On the exact same day, the Chinese chatbot was subjected to a large-scale cyberattack.

DeepSeek was established in 2023 by Liang Wenfeng, a 40-year-old graduate of the School of Information and Electronic Engineering. He set up a shop for Nvidia A100 chips, which are now banned from being exported to China. Media reports suggest that this may have prompted him to launch DeepSeek, combining those chips with less expensive, lower-end ones that are still available for import.

DeepSeek is based on the open-source DeepSeek-V3 design. Some specialists state that the model was developed for less than $6 million – competitors spend a lot more. However, other specialists dispute this details.