DeepSeek
A Chinese expert on Friday called on Western countries to view the rise of Chinese technology firms fairly, as Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) startup DeepSeek faces growing scrutiny from some countries following its rise in the international market.
Italy's data protection authority announced Thursday it had blocked DeepSeek's AI services, citing insufficient transparency about how the company handles personal information. The move, reported by Reuters, follows Ireland's Data Protection Commission's request for details from DeepSeek on how it processes Irish user data.
France's privacy watchdog, the CNIL, said on Thursday that it plans to investigate DeepSeek's AI system operations and potential privacy risks. "The CNIL's AI department is currently analyzing this tool," a CNIL spokesperson said on Thursday, according to Reuters.
Technology should be shared and used for the benefit of all humanity, rather than being monopolized, Liu Dingding, a veteran tech industry analyst, told the Global Times on Friday.
"Western countries should view the success of DeepSeek's R1 AI model fairly, allowing more people to enjoy the conveniences brought by technological advancement, instead of imposing restrictions," Liu Dingding said.
Meanwhile, DeepSeek is gaining traction in the international market, including adoption by some US tech giants. US-based chipmaker Nvidia announced on Thursday that the Chinese startup's model is now available on its NIM platform for enterprises to deploy, highlighting its growing acceptance in the US market.
Microsoft revealed on Wednesday that it has added DeepSeek's R1 AI model to its Azure cloud platform and GitHub developer tools.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said that DeepSeek's AI models are "innovation that drives efficiency," when asked about the Chinese AI startup during an earnings call on Thursday. "In general, I think innovation that drives efficiency is a good thing. And, you know, that's what you see in that model," said Cook, according to Yahoo Finance.
The tech community, including those directly involved in AI development and academia, acknowledges DeepSeek's innovations as substantial milestones, Liu Wei, director of the human-machine interaction and cognitive engineering laboratory with the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, told the Global Times on Friday.
However, for some Western countries, China's sudden emergence of groundbreaking achievements in the AI field, as exemplified by DeepSeek's rise, may have caught them off guard, and they need to find ways to respond to China's technological progress, said Liu Dingding.
The so-called restrictive measures, often justified by so-called concerns over personal information protection, to some extent reflect these countries' attitudes toward China's rise in technology, Wang Peng, an associate research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Friday.
However, as an open-source platform, DeepSeek's development will not be significantly hindered by these measures, said Wang,
In the US, two congressmen raised so-called national security concerns by urging the Trump administration to restrict exports of Nvidia's advanced AI chips to China, singling out DeepSeek as a key recipient of these chips.
Their letter urged US National Security Advisor Michael Waltz to "consider the potential national security benefits of placing an export control on Nvidia's H20 and chips of similar sophistication," Reuters reported on Friday.
It is unlikely that these restrictive measures will succeed in containing China's technological development, as the rise of DeepSeek's AI model serves as evidence, according to Liu Dingding.
In Asia, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi took a measured approach during a Tuesday press conference, noting that no specific regulations targeting DeepSeek had been enacted but affirming that Japan would closely track global AI trends, Nikkei reported on Thursday.
