DeepSeek launched its R1 chatbot last month, claiming it matches the capacity of artificial intelligence pacesetters in the United States for a fraction of the investment, upending the global industry.
South Korea, along with countries such as France and Italy, have asked questions about DeepSeek's data practices, submitting a written request for information about how the company handles user information.
But after DeepSeek failed to respond to an enquiry from South Korea's data watchdog, a slew of ministries confirmed Thursday they were taking steps to limit access to prevent potential leaks of sensitive information through generative AI services.
"Blocking measures for DeepSeek have been implemented specifically for military work-related PCs with Internet," a defence ministry official told AFP.
The ministry, which oversees active-duty soldiers deployed against the nuclear-armed North, has also "reiterated the security precautions regarding the use of generative AI for each unit and soldier, taking into account security and technical concerns", it added.
South Korea's police told AFP they had also blocked access to DeepSeek, while the trade ministry said that access had been temporarily restricted on all its PCs.
The trade, finance, unification and foreign ministries also all said they had blocked the app or had taken unspecified measures.
- Bans 'not excessive' -
Last week, Italy launched an investigation into DeepSeek's R1 model and blocked it from processing Italian users' data.
Australia has also banned DeepSeek from all government devices on the advice of security agencies.
Kim Jong-hwa, a professor at Cheju Halla University's artificial intelligence department, told AFP that amid growing rivalry between the United States and China he suspected "political factors" could be influencing the reaction to DeepSeek -- but said bans were still justified.
"From a technical standpoint, AI models like ChatGPT also face numerous security-related issues that have not yet been fully addressed," he said.
"Given that China operates under a communist regime, I question whether they consider security issues as much as OpenAI does when developing innovative technologies," he said.
"We cannot currently assess how much attention has been paid to security concerns by DeepSeek when developing its chatbot. Therefore, I believe that taking proactive measures is not too excessive."
Beijing on Thursday hit back against the ban, insisting the Chinese government "will never require enterprises or individuals to illegally collect or store data".
"China has always opposed the generalisation of national security and the politicisation of economic, trade and technological issues," foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said.
Beijing would also "firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises," Guo vowed.
- 'Complex competition' -
DeepSeek says it uses less-advanced H800 chips -- permitted for sale to China until 2023 under US export controls -- to power its large learning model.
South Korean chip giants Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are key suppliers of advanced chips used in AI servers.
The government announced on Wednesday an additional 34 trillion won ($23.5 billion) investment in semiconductors and high-tech industries, with the country's acting president urging Korean tech companies to stay flexible.
"Recently, a Chinese company unveiled the AI model DeepSeek R1, which offers high performance at a low cost, making a fresh impact in the market," acting President Choi Sang-mok said Wednesday.
"The global AI competition may evolve from a simple infrastructure scale-up rivalry to a more complex competition that includes software capabilities and other factors."
Australia bans DeepSeek AI program on government devices
Sydney (AFP) Feb 5, 2025 -
Australia has banned DeepSeek from all government devices on the advice of security agencies, a top official said Wednesday, citing privacy and malware risks posed by China's breakout AI program.
The DeepSeek chatbot -- developed by a China-based startup -- has astounded industry insiders and upended financial markets since it was released last month.
But a growing list of countries including South Korea, Italy and France have voiced concerns about the application's security and data practices.
Australia upped the ante overnight banning DeepSeek from all government devices, one of the toughest moves against the Chinese chatbot yet.
"This is an action the government has taken on the advice of security agencies. It's absolutely not a symbolic move," said government cyber security envoy Andrew Charlton.
"We don't want to expose government systems to these applications."
Risks included that uploaded information "might not be kept private", Charlton told national broadcaster ABC, and that applications such as DeepSeek "may expose you to malware".
China on Wednesday rejected those claims and said it opposed the "politicisation of economic, trade and technological issues".
"The Chinese government... has never and will never require enterprises or individuals to illegally collect or store data," its foreign ministry said in a statement.
- 'Unacceptable' risk -
Australia's Home Affairs department issued a directive to government employees overnight.
"After considering threat and risk analysis, I have determined that the use of DeepSeek products, applications and web services poses an unacceptable level of security risk to the Australian Government," Department of Home Affairs Secretary Stephanie Foster said in the directive.
As of Wednesday all non-corporate Commonwealth entities must "identify and remove all existing instances of DeepSeek products, applications and web services on all Australian Government systems and mobile devices," she added.
The directive also required that "access, use or installation of DeepSeek products" be prevented across government systems and mobile devices.
It has garnered bipartisan support among Australian politicians.
In 2018 Australia banned Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei from its national 5G network, citing national security concerns.
TikTok was banned from government devices in 2023 on the advice of Australian intelligence agencies.
Cyber security researcher Dana Mckay said DeepSeek posed a genuine risk.
"All Chinese companies are required to store their data in China. And all of that data is subject to inspection by the Chinese government," she told AFP.
"The other thing DeepSeek says explicitly in its privacy policy is that it collects keystroke data on typing patterns," said Mckay, from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
"You can identify an individual through that.
"If you know some work is coming from a government machine, and they go home and search for something unsavoury, then you have leverage over them."
- Alarm bells -
DeepSeek raised alarm last month when it claimed its new R1 chatbot matches the capacity of artificial intelligence pace-setters in the United States for a fraction of the cost.
It has sent Silicon Valley into a frenzy, with some calling its high performance and supposed low cost a wake-up call for US developers.
Some experts have accused DeepSeek of reverse-engineering the capabilities of leading US technology, such as the AI powering ChatGPT.
Several countries now including South Korea, Ireland, France, Australia and Italy have expressed concern about DeepSeek's data practices, including how it handles personal data and what information is used to train DeepSeek's AI system.
Tech and trade spats between China and Australia go back years.
Beijing was enraged by Canberra's Huawei decision, along with its crackdown on Chinese foreign influence operations and a call for an investigation into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.
A multi-billion-dollar trade war raged between Canberra and Beijing but eventually cooled late last year, when China lifted its final barrier, a ban on imports of Australian live rock lobsters.
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