Italy Blocks Chinese Chatbot DeepSeek

The Italian regulator has actually blocked a Chinese application with integrated expert system DeepSeek.

This was reported by the regional regulator Garante.

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

The decision comes two days after Italy sent a request about how DeepSeek uses users’ individual information. The local regulator asked what data is collected, why, and whether it is kept in China. However, the Chinese company’s response was deemed “completely inadequate”. They said they do not operate in Italy and that European law does not use to them.

The DeepSeek app has been missing from digital shops in Italy considering that January 29. The web variation, however, stayed readily available – and it is still readily available today.

The Italian paper la Repubblica composes that the primary page of DeepSeek states that usersʼ personal information is saved on servers in China, the material of chats with the bot can be utilized to train its algorithms, and the service ought to not be used by children under 14. However, the Italian regulator requested extra information, which it did not receive.

What is DeepSeek?

On January 27, DeepSeek surpassed ChatGPT to become the most app on the App Store. On the very 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 established a store for Nvidia A100 chips, which are now prohibited from being exported to China. Media reports recommend that this may have triggered him to introduce DeepSeek, integrating those chips with cheaper, lower-end ones that are still offered for import.

DeepSeek is based on the open-source DeepSeek-V3 model. Some experts say that the model was developed for less than $6 million – competitors spend much more. However, other experts challenge this details.