The burst of the R1 conversational robot of the Chinese start-up Deepseek amazed the tech industry by its ability to match its American competitors at a lower cost, rebutting the cards of artificial intelligence (AI).
But this chatbot barely launched, several governments have already restricted its use, invoking threats to national security or potential leaks of sensitive information.
AFP takes stock of the situation:
Who forbidden Deepseek?
Italy is the first country to have opened an investigation into Deepseek, to whom it prohibited to process data from Italian user.
In 2023, the Italian surveillance organization had already temporarily blocked the Openai chatbot in the country, Chatgpt, for reasons of confidentiality.
After Italy, the Taiwanese authorities prohibited their civil servants and key infrastructure to use the applications of the Chinese start-up, invoking risks for “national information security”.
This decision was followed a few days later by Australia.
In South Korea, several ministries, including the one who oversees relations with North Korea, blocked access to Deepseek on their computers. These blocking measures also concern “military PCs”.
On Monday, the South Korean authorities announced the withdrawal of Deepseek from local application stores, the time to study the way in which the Chinese startup manages user data.
In the United States, a bill was presented by parliamentarians to prevent the use of Deepseek – qualified as a “company affiliated to the Chinese Communist Party” by representative Darin Lahood – on government devices for cybersecurity reasons .
What do they fear?
The general conditions of Deepseek contain a section on the transmission of personal data to third parties, very similar to that of Chatgpt, the conversational robot of its American rival Openai.
But “in China, when the government requests access to user data, companies are legally required to provide them,” notes Youm Heung-Youl, teacher and data security specialist at Soonchunhyang University in South Korea .
According to Deepseek’s privacy policy, the Chinese start-up also collects information on “keyboard strikes”, that is to say any interaction that a user performs with a key of his keyboard.
Justified concerns?
“No major tech company is politically neutral,” said Vladimir Tikhonov, professor of Korean studies at the University of Oslo. “Google stores data relating to browsing history and it is naive to think that they are not shared with government agencies when they request it.”
Tikhonov recognizes, however, that the collaboration of large tech companies with the Chinese authorities is probably “more in -depth”.
Beijing claims that the Chinese government “will never require businesses or individuals that they collect or illegally store data”.
China has denounced the restrictions recently imposed by several countries, seeing it as a “politicization of economic, commercial and technological issues”.
Deepseek, a surprise?
For experts, Deepseek has notably emerged thanks to the massive investments of China in recent years in research and development.
According to data from the South Korean Chamber of Commerce, China ranks second in the world of research and development investors, just behind the United States.
“I see (the emergence of the R1 conversational robot, editor’s note) as a calculated blow which was prepared before the Trump era, and we should pay attention to the second and third waves of Deepseek,” warns Park Seung-Chan, professor of ‘Chinese economy at the South Korean University of Yongin.
What lessons?
Deepseek says he used H800 chips, less efficient than other models, but authorized for export to China until the end of 2023.
“If Deepseek has really used H800, it means that even without the latest semiconductors, similar results could be obtained with standard semiconductors, as long as the software is good,” explains Park Ki-Soon, professor at the ‘Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea.
Enough to put on top of the semiconductor industry, of which South Korea and Taiwan are at the forefront.
“Countries like the United States and China are investing considerable resources and talents in the development of software,” said Park Ki-Soon, for whom Deepseek is proof that all governments should support this sector more.
