White House and European regulators are separately investigating DeepSeek over national security risks, data privacy concerns, and potential IP violations. The Chinese AI app DeepSeek has come under intense scrutiny from both the US and European regulators, raising alarms over national security risks, data privacy concerns, and potential intellectual property theft.

The White House confirmed on Tuesday that the National Security Council (NSC) is reviewing the AI model’s implications as fears mount that Chinese advancements in AI could threaten the dominance of US-based AI firms including OpenAI and Google.

“This is a wake-up call to the American AI industry,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said responding to reporters during her first press briefing, reinforcing the administration’s commitment to ensuring US leadership in AI.

Leavitt also confirmed during the briefing that she had personally discussed the matter with the NSC.

Meanwhile, Italy’s data protection authority, the Garante, launched its own investigation into DeepSeek, demanding clarity on its data collection practices. The Italian regulator has given DeepSeek and its affiliated companies 20 days to respond, making it one of the first regulatory bodies to take direct action against the Chinese AI startup.

“The Authority, considering the potential high risk for the data of millions of people in Italy, has asked the two companies and their affiliates to confirm which personal data are collected, from which sources, for which purposes, what is the legal basis of the processing, and whether they are stored on servers located in China,” the regulator said in a statement.

The Garante is seeking details about the personal data collected, its sources, its legal basis for processing, and whether any data is stored in China — raising broader concerns over data sovereignty and compliance with Europe’s stringent privacy laws.

Italy’s move comes amid broader concerns about foreign AI models’ compliance with regional regulations. The country had previously banned OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2023 over potential violations of EU privacy rules, demonstrating its proactive stance in regulating AI models that handle personal data.

“According to its privacy policy, DeepSeek explicitly says it can collect “your text or audio input, prompt, uploaded files, feedback, chat history, or other content” and use it for training purposes,” research firm Forrester said in a statement. “It also states it can share this information with law enforcement agencies [and] public authorities at its discretion.

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Source : https://www.computerworld.com/article/3812231/us-officials-probe-chinas-deepseek-ai-amid-security-and-privacy-scrutiny.html