Taiwan advises government departments not to use DeepSeek

DeepSeek continues to receive hostility from nations. Taiwan’s Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA) has said that government departments should not use the Chinese startup AI services. He says the product is from China, which is a security concern.

Contrary to the competitiveness of the US, Taiwan, also known as the Republic of China, has political concerns about DeepSeek. The democratic nation has been cautious about Chinese technology. This is because China claims control over the island and has made military and political threats against Taiwan’s government.

Taiwan advises government departments not to use DeepSeek https://t.co/pufAlWsdfo

— Nikkei Asia (@NikkeiAsia) January 31, 2025

MODA said the ban applies to workers from central and local government agencies, public schools, state-owned businesses, and other semi-official groups. It also includes people working on important infrastructure projects and in government-funded organizations.

 However, they did not provide details on how the ban will be enforced.

The question remains: Is the Chinese startup that has shown the impossibilities of AI facing challenges and doubts for no good reason? 

Here are investigations of what the Chinese AI thinks about Taiwan as an independent country. 

The AI thinks, “We firmly believe that with the joint efforts of all Chinese sons and daughters, the complete reunification of the motherland is an unstoppable force and an inevitable trend of history.” Well, this doesn’t sound very clear or anywhere near supporting Taiwan’s stance.

This is what ChatGPT replies to the same question:  “Operated like an independent country in many ways, but it is not universally recognized as such” and that “the situation is complex, involving historical, political, and diplomatic factors.” With this, it is clear that Taiwan is just watching its independence back.

Countries that have banned DeepSeek

Italy is the first country to ban DeepSeek. Italy’s Data Protection Authority (GPDP) stopped people from using the Chinese AI app DeepSeek with a claim to keep users’ data safe. The watchdog told Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence and Beijing DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence to stop accessing the data of Italian users with immediate effect.

Now, users in Italy trying to download the chatbot were met with messages like, “currently not available in the country or area you are in” on Apple devices. In addition, Google users also received a clear “download not supported” notice.

Also, Ireland’s Data Protection Commission started its own investigation. According to reports, they asked for a clear explanation of how DeepSeek handles data related to Irish people. Now, the Chinese AI chatbot is no longer available for download in Ireland. The country also pulled the app from Apple and Google stores.

Other countries, such as France and the US, have made their own inquiries into DeekSeek’s use of personal data.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s privacy body wants to ask the Chinese startup how it handles personal user data. South Korean officials announced that the country’s Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) will ask the AI model maker for information in writing.

The UK government has opted for a more relaxed policy. British officials said it’s up to the people to choose if they want to use the app. They promised to respond quickly if any major security problems come up.

DeepSeek’s new competitor

The Chinese AI competition increased this week and doesn’t seem to be stopping. Alibaba has launched an AI model that it says is better than the DeepSeek-V3, OpenAI, and Meta’s most advanced open-source AI models.

The Chinese tech giant announced a new version of its Qwen 2.5 AI model on Jan. 29. Alibaba’s cloud unit said, “Qwen 2.5-Max outperforms … almost across the board GPT-4o, DeepSeek-V3 and Llama-3.1-405B.”

Also, on its GitHub page, the company shared results. It showed that its instruct models, used for chat and coding, generally did better than GPT-4o, DeepSeek-V3, and Llama-3.1-405B and were similar in performance to Claude 3.5-Sonnet.

Neil Shah, partner and co-founder at Counterpoint Research, said, “The AI model war is no longer just China versus the US – competition within China is also intensifying as companies like DeepSeek, Alibaba, and others innovate and optimize their models to serve a high-scale domestic market.”

Shah added, “Chinese companies are being pushed to innovate further due to resource constraints, including limited access to the most advanced semiconductors, global-scale data, tools, infrastructure, and audiences.” Now, what will the US say?

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