Italy Blocks Chinese Chatbot DeepSeek

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

This was reported by the regional regulator Garante.

The emergency order entered impact immediately to secure the individual data of Italians.

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

The DeepSeek app has been missing from in Italy given that January 29. The web version, nevertheless, stayed readily available – and it is still available today.

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

What is DeepSeek?

On January 27, DeepSeek overtook ChatGPT to end up being the most popular totally free app on the App Store. On the very 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 prompted him to launch DeepSeek, integrating those chips with more affordable, lower-end ones that are still available for import.

DeepSeek is based upon the open-source DeepSeek-V3 model. Some specialists say that the model was established for less than $6 million – rivals invest far more. However, other specialists dispute this info.