South Korea to ban Chinese AI DeepSeek, citing concerns over data collection
Seoul: According to a ministry source cited by the Yonhap News Agency on Thursday, the South Korean finance ministry announced intentions to restrict access to the Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) service DeepSeek due to data-gathering concerns.
“Due to multiple technical concerns raised about DeepSeek from home and abroad, we plan to block access for the service on PCs connected to external networks,” stated the official.
On computers in South Korea’s defense, commerce, and foreign ministries, DeepSeek access was blocked a day earlier.
Furthermore, according to a different unification ministry source, the ministry plans to impose the same limitations on AI services, most likely DeepSeek.
“The unification ministry has (since 2023) prohibited the input of undisclosed official data into all generative AI at the request of the National Intelligence Service and the interior ministry,” added the official.
According to Yonhap, the official said, “We plan to take follow-up measures within the day, including blocking access,” when asked whether the ministry will restrict access to DeepSeek.
Along with several other government offices, the Ministry of Environment blocked access to DeepSeek on Thursday. According to Yonhap, the ministry began blocking access to DeepSeek from its internet-connected PCs around 9 a.m. (local time).
“The intelligence authorities have asked for caution in using DeepSeek, as its personal information collection system is not yet clearly known,” according to a ministry representative.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA) said on January 31 that government workers would not be allowed to use DeepSeek because of worries that it would provide Beijing access to private information.
According to Focus Taiwan, MODA warned that any data breaches might jeopardize national security in an official declaration designating DeepSeek AI as a Chinese information and communications technology (ICT) product.
Additionally, Italy’s data protection regulator said that it had prohibited the Chinese AI model DeepSeek because it was opaque about how it used personal information. Privacy issues have also been brought up by US and Australian authorities.
The US Commerce Secretary candidate, Howard Lutnick, has charged DeepSeek with stealing US technology and circumventing US export restrictions in order to acquire Nvidia chips.
According to the Asia Times, Lutnick said at his January 29 nomination hearing before the US Senate that DeepSeek was able to create its AI models at a much reduced cost by buying a lot of Nvidia processors and using information from Meta’s open platform.
“I have a very skewed perspective on China,” he remarked. We must defend ourselves against them, as they just care about themselves and want to hurt us. We must cease assisting them and focus on our own invention. DeepSeek is able to depend on Meta’s open platform. Their DeepSeek model is powered by Nvidia’s processors, which they purchased in large quantities and managed to get over [export limits]. It must come to an end.
