The allegations are significant from a security standpoint, but the fact is that DeepSeek can only store data on Chinese servers when the models are used through the company’s own ChatGPT-like service. If the open-source model is hosted locally or orchestrated via GPUs in the U.S., the data does not go to China.

Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek is being quizzed by Ireland’s privacy watchdog amid concerns over the way it’s processing data related to citizens in the nation.

China's DeepSeek AI has already caught the eye of a data protection watchdog, shortly after it went viral and became the top-rated free app on Apple's App Store in the US and other regions. As TechCrunch reports,

DeepSeek is both the AI chat app that has garnered such attention in the past week, and the AI research company behind it. Created by a powerful Chinese hedge fund, it’s made huge waves in the AI world for its impressive capabilities and relatively efficient cost.

Share this daily newsletter with your friends, who can sign up here. Send tips to National Security Editor Guy Taylor. The U.S. Space Force is building a “Space Campus” within the operations of the Pentagon’s Central Command at the strategically positioned Al Udeid Air Base in the Mideast nation of Qatar — a development that could prove crucial over the long term as President Trump pushes to develop a vast missile shield that sources tell Threat Status will rely on space-based interceptors.

DeepSeek R1 is an AI model built using numerical weights organized in matrices. When a user inputs a prompt, the model processes these numbers to generate a response. The DeepSeek app allows users to chat with this AI,