US Defense Department employees connected their work computers to Chinese servers to access DeepSeek’s new AI chatbot for at least two days before the Pentagon moved to shut off access, according to a defense official familiar with the matter.

Liang Wenfeng, the 40-year-old founder of DeepSeek, trained as an engineer and then launched a hedge fund. Now he’s enjoying sudden success with his AI chatbot.

The Chinese firm said training the model cost just $5.6 million. Microsoft alleges DeepSeek ‘distilled’ OpenAI’s work.

The DeepSeek chatbot, known as R1, responds to user queries just like its U.S.-based counterparts. Early testing released by DeepSeek suggests that its quality rivals that of other AI products, while the company says it costs less and uses far fewer specialized chips than do its competitors.

While DeepSeek remains blocked on Italian app stores, a VPN should help bypass the block couples with some extra workarounds. Experts, however, aren't advising it.

DeepSeek privacy concerns have led to investigations being opened in both the US and Europe, and seen the app removed from the App Store in Italy. It seems likely the same will happen in other countries. Italian’s privacy regulator questioned whether the app complied with GDPR, a tough privacy law that applies across 30 different countries …

A new China-based AI chatbot challenger called DeepSeek has reached the number one position on Apple's App Store free charts in

As a Chinese firm, DeepSeek is required to follow China's strict censorship laws and regulations that ensure AI conforms to "core socialist values," the news agency AFP reported. A DeepSeek answer admitted it is designed to respond in a way that reflects Beijing's line.

Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek said on Monday that its new, popular app was hit with a cyber-attack, forcing the company to temporarily limit registrations. The attack came after the

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek's chatbot scored a mere 17% accuracy in NewsGuard's audit, ranking it 10th out of 11 in performance against Western competitors. Highlighting technology gaps, the chatbot repeated false claims 30% of the time,

The S&P500 and the Nasdaq Composite declined as investors questioned America's AI dominance after DeepSeek launched its free AI chatbot.

DeepSeek, the controversial Chinese AI chatbot, is no longer available for download in Italy and Ireland. Both countries pulled the app from Apple and Google stores on Jan. 29, accusing the company of dodging questions about its handling of personal data and causing fears of Chinese government access to user information.