The astronomical rise of DeepSeek will always benefit its popularity, but there is no denying that leading governments of the world have started to display worry over users showing preference to the service. In fact, according to the latest report, Pentagon workers were playing around with the company’s chatbot for around two days before the activity was discovered, forcing the authorities to ban the use of DeepSeek on the Department of Defense’s servers.
A more worrying discovery is that DeepSeek mentions that it stores data on servers in China, possibly presenting a security risk when Pentagon employees started playing around with the chatbot
A defence official familiar with what was happening inside the Pentagon states the Defense Information Systems Agency, which is responsible for the IT networks, blocked access to DeepSeeks’ website on late Tuesday. As reported by Bloomberg, employees were using the service for two days before this discovery was made, prompting swift action. Whether the Pentagon workers have been reprimanded for their recent act, they might want to exercise caution because DeepSeek’s privacy policy clearly mentions that it stores user data on its Chinese servers.
This privacy policy was likely noticed by Italian privacy watchdog Garante, who issued DeepSeek and its affiliated companies some questions related to GDPR compliance and gave the company 20 days to respond. Shortly after, the DeepSeek app was removed from Italy’s Apple and Google app stores, with no update on whether the service will be restored in the near future. On Wednesday, when Pentagon employees attempted to access DeepSeek, their work displays showed a sign saying ‘Website Blocked.’
The Department of Defense’s IT experts are still circulating and gathering information on the extent of DeepSeek’s usage. According to Business Standard, U.S. military personnel had downloaded an early release of DeepSeek’s code on their workstations in the fall of 2024, but at the time, there were no concerns raised about these downloads because the AI startup’s connection with China was unclear. These military services are now scrambling to find and remove code from Chinese-based chatbots that ran on separate machines.
Unfortunately, that has not stopped thousands of personnel from accessing DeepSeek through Ask Sage, an authorized software platform that does not connect with Chinese servers. Our gut feeling is that the pace at which DeepSeek is growing will eventually receive the ban hammer from the U.S. government, with the latter likely pressuring their local billion-dollar entities to push towards making more capable AI models while exercising financial efficiency.
News Source: Bloomberg