As debates over the ethics of its technology grow, comparisons to TikTok's own privacy controversies are inevitable. While the future of DeepSeek is unclear, one thing is certain: the intersection of AI, data security, and international relations is about to get much more complicated
Could DeepSeek follow in TikTok’s footsteps as a global data privacy concern? Well, the answer is unclear. The rapid-rising Chinese AI start-up DeepSeek has sparked national security concerns across the world. Since its launch, fears are looming that the low-cost AI model could be leveraged by the Chinese government to spy on other countries’ operations, particularly, America.
During a press briefing on Tuesday, US Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt spoke about DeekSeep that has developed R-1 model with less than $6 million as compared to OpenAI’s GPT-4 costing $100 million. Quoting newly-elected US President Donald Trump, she said this is a “wake up” call for American AI industry.
“The President believes that the last government sat on their hands and allowed China to rapidly develop this AI program. He (Trump) believes in restoring American AI dominance and his team is working every single day to do it. As for the national security implications, the Nation Security Council (NSC) is currently looking into any possible security threats,” she said as quoted by ANI.
Many countries like US, Ireland, and Australia have expressed their concerns over data privacy and national security issues. But these are just speculations based on the TikTok controversy, the proof is in the pudding. Till then, TIME reported that the US navy has banned the use of DeepSeek among its ranks due to ethical concerns.
Just like ChatGPT, DeepSeek’s AI models answer questions on the basis of data they have been trained on. But the cost of developing these models is much lesser than that of US models. In an essay, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, in an essay said, “DeepSeek produced a model close to the performance of US models 7-10 months older, for a good deal less cost”.
Not just R1, DeepSeek has built many open-source resources like LLMv3 which the company claims to have the abilities of OpenAI’s GPT 4-o. The low-cost makes DeepSeek’s AI models more accessible to a larger audience, but this affordability can raise concerns over data privacy as more individuals and organisations have the opportunity to use the technology without sufficient safeguards in place to protect sensitive information.
According to privacy expert Schroeder as quoted by TIME magazine, mostly LLMs (large language models) rely on “sensitive” databases such as information from data breaches or stolen biometrics. Echoing similar concerns, Trump’s AI and crypto czar, David Sacks also accused DeepSeek of depending on the output of OpenAI’s models to build its own technology.
Even DeepSeek’s own privacy policy states that it “automatically” collects data from its users when they use the services, including internet or other network activity information such as IP address, unique device identifiers and cookies.
“The personal information we collect from you may be stored on a server located outside of the country where you live. We store the information we collect in secure servers located in the People’s Republic of China,” the policy reads.
The company’s own policy raises concerns among users about their personal information which can be accessed by a foreign government like China which already has a significant control over data and tech companies. And one should not forget about China’s relations with the United States and other countries, especially after Covid-19 pandemic which hit the global economy hard.
Data privacy and national security concerns were the reasons behind TikTok controversy too. TikTok was banned in the United States as the officials frequently warned that the video-sharing platform poses a threat to national security. They said that the Chinese government might use it to spy on Americans or weaponise it to secretly influence the American people by magnifying or suppressing specific material.
Not only the United States, countries like Britain, India, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, France, Malta, Netherlands, Latvia, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Taiwan and the European Union institutions have put either a complete ban or partial ban on TikTok, that prohibits the government employees from using the app.
Similarly, the privacy risks will be akin to “TikTok on steroids” if Americans start using DeepSeek, said Douglas Schmidt, the dean of the School of Computing, Data Sciences and Physics at William & Mary as quoted by TIME magazine.
While it remains uncertain whether DeepSeek will follow in TikTok’s controversial footsteps, the growing fears surrounding the Chinese AI model’s rapid rise and affordability are undeniable. But the debate over privacy, security, and ethical use will undoubtedly continue to intensify. It also raises questions on the way how these companies are operating, perhaps, at the cost of individual freedoms and national sovereignty.