Texas state in the United States of America has banned the Chinese AI app DeepSeek, days after the AI model challenged leading American AI models. Texas Governor Greg Abbott, issued the ban on using DeepSeek in state-issued devices, citing concerns over potential government data theft.
“Texas will not allow the Chinese Communist Party to infiltrate our state’s critical infrastructure through data-harvesting AI and social media apps,” the Texas Governor said while issuing the ban on the DeepSeek app. Texas has also issued a ban on RedNote, another viral Chinese app, which offers unlimited short video content.
Meanwhile, multiple national governments have banned DeepSeek’s ‘R-1’ AI model, citing concerns over cybersecurity. Italy, on January 30, became the first nation to ban the use of DeepSeek on government devices.
Taiwan, the conflicting neighbour of China, has also banned using DeepSeek by government agencies. The country, which has been under threat of military action from the big nations, is worried that DeepSeek would pose a security threat to the tech-oriented island nation.
Republican senator Josh Hawley filed a bill at the American senate to prevent the importing of technology and intellectual properties developed in China. The law proposed by senator Hawley pushes to implicate violators with up to 20 years in prison and levy fines of up to USD 1 million from individuals and up to USD 1000 million from companies.
Though the app is not yet banned in the entire United States, the US Navy and NASA have also prohibited the use of DeepSeek for any work-related tasks or personal use.
The Chinese AI app, which took the world by storm last week is facing a not-so-warm welcome from its US competitors.
DeepSeek’s R-1 AI model, developed by a Chinese HedgeFund Firm, using far less investment and time, went viral in the last week of January and became the top AI app in the US, surpassing Open AI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini AI.
This had led to a share market crash in the US, with leading AI-powered chip manufacturer NVIDIA shares plummeting, and inducing a huge money loss for American investors.
