1 South Korea Ministries, Police Block DeepSeek Gain Access To

Adela Rowland edited this page 2025-02-21 03:06:43 +02:00

South Korean ministries and cops obstructing DeepSeek's access to work computers

South Korean ministries and police said Thursday they were blocking DeepSeek's access to their computer systems, after the Chinese AI startup did not respond to a data watchdog request about how it manages user details.

DeepSeek released its R1 chatbot last month, claiming it matches the capacity of expert system pacesetters in the United States for a fraction of the investment, upending the global industry.

South Korea, together with countries such as France and Italy, have actually 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 information guard dog, a multitude of ministries confirmed Thursday they were taking steps to restrict access to avoid prospective leakages of delicate details through generative AI services.

"Blocking steps for DeepSeek have actually been implemented specifically for military job-related PCs with Internet," a defence ministry official told AFP.

The ministry, which manages active-duty soldiers deployed against the nuclear-armed North, has also "restated the security preventative measures concerning the use of generative AI for each unit and soldier, taking into account security and technical issues", it included.

South Korea's police informed AFP they had likewise blocked access to DeepSeek, while the trade ministry said that gain access to had actually been briefly limited on all its PCs.

The trade, finance, unification and foreign ministries also all said they had blocked the app or mediawiki1263.00web.net had actually taken unspecified procedures.

- Bans 'not excessive' -

Recently, Italy launched an examination into DeepSeek's R1 model and blocked it from processing Italian users' information.

Australia has actually also banned DeepSeek from all government devices on the suggestions of security companies.

Kim Jong-hwa, a professor at Cheju Halla University's expert system department, wiki.eqoarevival.com told AFP that amid growing competition in between the United States and China he thought "political factors" might be influencing the response to DeepSeek-- but said bans were still justified.

"From a technical perspective, AI designs like ChatGPT also face various security-related problems that have not yet been fully addressed," he said.

"Given that China runs under a communist routine, I question whether they consider security problems as much as OpenAI does when developing innovative innovations," he said.

"We can not currently examine just how much attention has actually been paid to security issues by DeepSeek when establishing its chatbot. Therefore, I believe that taking proactive measures is not too extreme."

Beijing on Thursday countered against the ban, insisting the Chinese government "will never ever require enterprises or individuals to illegally collect or keep data".

"China has constantly opposed the generalisation of nationwide security and the politicisation of financial, trade and technological problems," foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said.

Beijing would also "securely protect the genuine rights and interests of Chinese business," Guo swore.

- 'Complex competitors' -

DeepSeek states it uses less-advanced H800 chips-- allowed for sale to China up until 2023 under US export controls-- to power its large learning model.

South Korean chip giants Samsung Electronics and are essential providers of innovative chips used in AI servers.

The government revealed on Wednesday an extra 34 trillion won ($23.5 billion) investment in semiconductors and state-of-the-art markets, with the country's acting president advising Korean tech business to remain versatile.

"Recently, a Chinese company revealed the AI design DeepSeek R1, which offers high performance at a low expense, making a fresh effect in the market," acting President Choi Sang-mok said Wednesday.

"The international AI competitors may evolve from a basic infrastructure scale-up rivalry to a more intricate competitors that consists of software abilities and other factors."