The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has prohibited federal civilian agencies from purchasing products and services from Chinese AI firm DeepSeek, warning of potential threats to national security. The ban applies to agencies such as the Department of the Treasury, State Department, and Justice Department, but not those under the Department of Defense.
Background
Intense competition in Chinese and American technology has seen U.S. government criticism of Chinese AI firms become more vocal, particularly under the Trump administration. White House technology director Clazio had written in an internal memo that U.S. AI companies faced 'malicious use' at the hands of Chinese competitors. Some Chinese AI firms, including DeepSeek, were accused of copying model technologies from Anthropic and Open AI.
DeepSeek's Technological Advantages
Since its launch last year, DeepSeek has seen its popularity skyrocket, thanks to its strong performance, low cost, and free deployment capability. It was reported that the training cost for its first-generation model was only around 6 million dollars, compared to the nearly 100 million dollars it cost Open AI to develop GPT-4.