Olivia
February 6, Seoul, South Korea: Three South Korean Ministries have temporarily blocked employee access to the Chinese startup Deepseek due to Security Concerns. South Korea’s information privacy ministry plans to ask DeepSeek about how the personal information of user information is managed.
The government issued a notice on Tuesday calling for ministries and agencies to exercise caution about using AI services including DeepSeek and ChatGPT at work, officials said.
State-run Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power said it had blocked the use of AI services including DeepSeek earlier this month.
The defense ministry has also blocked access to DeepSeek on its computers that are for military use, officials said on Thursday. The foreign ministry has restricted access to DeepSeek in computers that connect to external networks, Yonhap News Agency said. The ministry said it cannot confirm specific security measures.
DeepSeek did not immediately respond to an emailed request which was received by the ministry for comment. It was not immediately clear if the ministries had taken any actions against ChatGPT. The ban makes South Korea the latest government to warn about or place restrictions on DeepSeek.
Australia and Taiwan have banned DeepSeek from all government devices this week, citing security concerns associated with the Chinese artificial intelligence startup.
In January, Italy’s data protection authority ordered DeepSeek to block its chatbot in the country after the company failed to address concerns regarding its privacy policy.
Several other governments, including those in Europe, the U.S., and India, are also assessing the implications of using DeepSeek. Meanwhile, South Korea’s information privacy watchdog intends to question the company about how it manages users’ personal data.
DeepSeek made waves in the tech industry last month with the launch of its latest AI models, claiming they rival or surpass U.S.-developed products while being significantly more cost-effective.
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