By Michael Susin

The Italian Data Protection Authority said it blocked access to Chinese artificial intelligence application DeepSeek with immediate effect amid data-protection concerns.

The watchdog said Thursday that the restraining order was issued after Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence and Beijing DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence, the Chinese companies that provide the DeepSeek chatbot service, allegedly failed to provide information regarding what personal data is collected, the sources used, the purposes pursued, the legal basis of the processing, and whether they are stored on servers located in China.

"Contrary to the authority's findings, the companies stated that they do not operate in Italy and that European regulations do not apply to them," the authority, commonly known as Garante, said.

Garante simultaneously opened an investigation, without disclosing further details.

DeepSeek recently disrupted the tech market after saying it had developed AI models that nearly matched American rivals despite using inferior chips, with its AI chatbot being downloaded by millions of people in just a few days.

Write to Michael Susin at michael.susin@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 31, 2025 03:06 ET (08:06 GMT)

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