Pentagon tries to block DeepSeek after employees connect to Chinese servers

By: Nastya Bobkova | 31.01.2025, 02:33
Pentagon closes its doors: what happened to access to DeepSeek? Pentagon restricts access to DeepSeek after connecting to Chinese servers. Source: Getty Images

The Pentagon is taking urgent measures to block the Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek after employees of the agency connected their work computers to Chinese servers, which raises national security issues.

Here's What We Know

DeepSeek's terms of use state that user data is stored on Chinese servers and is subject to Chinese law, which obliges them to cooperate with the country's intelligence.

Nevertheless, employees of the US Department of Defence were influenced by the popularity of DeepSeek and connected their work computers to Chinese servers, using the service for at least two days, Bloomberg reports.

The Pentagon has already begun blocking DeepSeek on part of its network, although some employees still had access to the service, Bloomberg said.

DeepSeek. Illustration by the South China Morning Post
DeepSeek. Image: South China Morning Post

The US government is facing national security issues as the Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek is gaining popularity, hitting the top spots in the US Apple and Play Store.

On January 24, the US Navy banned its employees from using DeepSeek due to security and ethical issues, CNBC reported.

OpenAI has evidence that Chinese startup DeepSeek used its models to train its competitor. This is a technique called "destylation", where developers use the results of larger AI models to train smaller ones.

And Italy has removed DeepSeek from app stores for data privacy violations.

Source: Bloomberg