DeepSeek AI Could Jeopardize National Security, US Officials Say
Contents
DeepSeek is currently the hottest name in the artificial intelligence segment. The Chinese company launched AI models with impressive performance at a very low cost, achieving results that outperform other popular AI models in multiple parameters. The irruption even crashed the stocks of big names like NVIDIA. That said, US officials are now raising national security concerns related to DeepSeek AI’s popularity.
Last year, former President Joe Biden signed a bill to ban TikTok unless ByteDance sold the US section of the short video platform. The move came after legislators and authorities expressed their concerns related to national security. In fact, the initial intentions to ban the platform date back to Donald Trump’s first presidential term. Currently, Trump’s position on the matter is radically different.
US officials warn of potential danger of DeepSeek AI to national security
A similar atmosphere could be starting to form regarding the arrival of DeepSeek’s AI-powered chatbot. US authorities have been particularly wary of services developed in China. With TikTok, US officials took the most severe step when the platform already had around 170 million users. However, tensions between the US and China maintain a growing trend. Recent developments, such as the breaches on domestic telecommunications networks, do not make things easier. So, US officials may want to act more quickly.
Ross Burley, a co-founder of the nonprofit Centre for Information Resilience, raised data security and privacy issues over DeepSeek’s growing popularity in the country. This comes after experts warned about shady data handling and storage policies. There are also concerns related to vulnerabilities discovered in the source code.
“More and more people will use it, and that will open the door to more and more personal data just being given away to the [Chinese Communist Party] and being sent basically to mainland China to be able to inform them of their activities,” Burley claimed. The company’s policies state that it stores user data “on secure servers located in the People’s Republic of China.”
This is the data that DeepSeek can take from your device
The data collected by DeepSeek from each use session can include “device model, operating system, keystroke patterns or rhythms, IP address, and system language.” The chatbot, available as an app for Android and iOS, can also obtain “service-related, diagnostic, and performance information, including crash reports and performance logs.” US experts and authorities fear that the Chinese government has access to all this data from US users. Chinese laws typically allow such requests from companies with servers located in the Asian country.
Ross Burley added that Beijing could use local laws to implement “behavior change campaigns, disinformation campaigns” via DeepSeek. The DOJ and US representatives argued that keeping TikTok in the country could allow similar situations. There have already been examples of the chatbot refusing to provide answers to questions deemed sensitive by the Chinese government. So, Beijing could have an influence on the output you get.
No news on potential measures against DeepSeek
It is not yet certain that the United States will take action against DeepSeek AI. In fact, Donald Trump referred to the company’s emergence as a “wake-up call” for domestic tech companies. The United States is currently working on the Stargate project to establish its dominance in AI. OpenAI CEO also expressed enthusiasm regarding the new and powerful competition.
