South Korea imposes new restrictions on DeepSeek use

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) — South Korea on Thursday imposed new restrictions on the use of Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek among officials amid data collection concerns.

In the latest, the country's Environment Ministry blocked access to the DeepSeek due to "multiple technical reasons," Seoul-based Yonhap News reported.

The ministry blocked access to DeepSeek from its internet-connected PCs, though it did not take such a measure for other generative AIs, such as OpenAI and ChatGPT.

The Finance Ministry plans to follow suit.

"Due to multiple technical concerns raised about DeepSeek from home and abroad, we plan to block access for the service on PCs connected to external networks," said an official from the Finance Ministry.

The decision follows a government-wide initiative to restrict access to the Chinese service to contain potential leaks of critical information through generative AI services.

It came a day after access to the service was restricted on computers at the foreign, trade and defense ministries in South Korea.

Drawing notable attention since its release last month, DeepSeek has impressed industry experts with its high performance at a relatively low cost compared to the competing services.

However, citing concerns over its security and data management practices, many countries have imposed restrictions on the service.