Italy Blocks Chinese Chatbot DeepSeek

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

This was reported by the regional regulator Garante.

The emergency order entered impact immediately to secure the personal information of Italians.

The choice comes 2 days after Italy sent a demand about how DeepSeek utilizes users’ individual information. The regional regulator asked what information is gathered, why, and whether it is saved in China. However, the Chinese company’s reaction was deemed “totally insufficient”. They stated they do not operate in Italy and that European law does not apply to them.

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

The Italian paper la Repubblica writes that the main page of DeepSeek states that usersʼ individual data is saved on servers in China, the material 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 asked for extra details, which it did not get.

What is DeepSeek?

On January 27, DeepSeek surpassed ChatGPT to become the most popular free app on the App Store. On the same day, the Chinese chatbot underwent 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 prohibited from being exported to China. Media reports recommend that this may have prompted him to launch DeepSeek, those chips with less expensive, lower-end ones that are still readily available for import.

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