South Korea Ministries, Police Block DeepSeek Gain Access To
South Korean ministries and authorities obstructing DeepSeek's access to work computers
South Korean ministries and cops said Thursday they were obstructing DeepSeek's access to their computers, after the Chinese AI startup did not react to an information watchdog demand about how it handles user details.
DeepSeek introduced its R1 chatbot last month, claiming it matches the capacity of expert system pacesetters in the United States for a fraction of the financial investment, upending the global industry.
South Korea, in addition to countries such as France and Italy, have asked concerns about DeepSeek's information practices, submitting a written ask for details about how the company deals with user details.
But after DeepSeek failed to react to an enquiry from South Korea's data watchdog, a slew of ministries confirmed Thursday they were taking actions to limit access to prevent prospective leaks of delicate details through generative AI services.
"Blocking procedures for DeepSeek have been implemented particularly for military work-related PCs with Internet," a defence ministry official told AFP.
The ministry, which supervises active-duty soldiers released against the nuclear-armed North, has also "repeated the security precautions relating to the usage of generative AI for each system and soldier, considering security and technical concerns", forum.pinoo.com.tr it included.
South Korea's cops told AFP they had also blocked access to DeepSeek, while the trade ministry said that gain access to had actually been temporarily restricted on all its PCs.
The trade, finance, unification and foreign ministries also all said they had actually obstructed the app or had taken unspecified measures.
- Bans 'not excessive' -
Recently, Italy released an examination into DeepSeek's R1 design and blocked it from processing Italian users' information.
Australia has also banned DeepSeek from all government gadgets on the advice of security companies.
Kim Jong-hwa, a teacher at Cheju Halla University's expert system department, told AFP that amidst growing rivalry between the United States and China he thought "political aspects" could be influencing the response to DeepSeek-- however said restrictions were still warranted.
"From a technical perspective, AI models like ChatGPT likewise deal with many security-related concerns that have not yet been totally dealt with," he said.
"Given that China operates under a communist program, I question whether they consider security problems as much as OpenAI does when establishing innovative technologies," he said.
"We can not presently examine how much attention has been paid to security issues by DeepSeek when developing its chatbot. Therefore, I think that taking proactive procedures is not too extreme."
Beijing on Thursday countered against the ban, insisting the Chinese government "will never ever require business or people to unlawfully gather or store data".
"China has always opposed the generalisation of national security and the politicisation of financial, trade and technological concerns," foreign ministry representative Guo Jiakun said.
Beijing would also "firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises," Guo vowed.
- 'Complex competitors' -
DeepSeek says it utilizes less-advanced H800 chips-- allowed for sale to China until 2023 under US export controls-- to power its big learning model.
South Korean chip giants Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are key providers of innovative chips used in AI servers.
The federal government announced on Wednesday an extra 34 trillion won ($23.5 billion) investment in semiconductors and high-tech markets, with the nation's acting advising Korean tech companies to remain flexible.
"Recently, a Chinese business revealed the AI model DeepSeek R1, which uses high efficiency at a low expense, making a fresh effect in the market," acting President Choi Sang-mok said Wednesday.
"The worldwide AI competitors may develop from a basic facilities scale-up rivalry to a more complex competition that includes software abilities and other factors."