AI’s newest contender DeepSeek shakes tech giants

WEEKS after the Chinese startup DeekSeek took the global artificial intelligence (AI) industry by storm with the launch of its low-cost, high-quality chatbot, American politicians still seem to be struggling to come to grips with the ‘shock of the century’. As expected, the US lawmakers have brought forth in the House of Representatives a bill to ban DeepSeek — which shook the lead American tech companies had in the race to develop AI technology — from being used on government devices over “concerns about user data security”. The legislation comes as South Korean ministries and police said they were blocking DeepSeek’s access to their computers. Australia has already banned DeepSeek from all government devices, based on the advice of security agencies, while France and Italy have raised concerns about DeepSeek’s data practice.