Italy Blocks Chinese Chatbot DeepSeek

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

This was reported by the local regulator Garante.

The emergency situation order entered impact right away to the personal information of Italians.

The choice comes two days after Italy sent out a request about how DeepSeek uses users’ personal information. The regional regulator asked what data is gathered, why, and whether it is kept in China. However, the Chinese company’s reaction was considered “totally insufficient”. They said they do not operate in Italy which European law does not use to them.

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

The Italian newspaper la Repubblica writes that the main page of DeepSeek states that usersʼ personal information is saved on servers in China, the material of chats with the bot can be used to train its algorithms, and the service should not be used by kids under 14. However, the Italian regulator asked for extra information, which it did not get.

What is DeepSeek?

On January 27, DeepSeek surpassed ChatGPT to become the most popular totally free app on the App Store. On the very same day, the Chinese chatbot underwent a massive 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 shop for Nvidia A100 chips, which are now prohibited from being exported to China. Media reports suggest that this might have prompted him to introduce DeepSeek, integrating those chips with more affordable, lower-end ones that are still available for import.

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