The South Korean government has taken a significant step to protect its sensitive information by blocking access to the Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek.
Based on the directives from the government, ministries, including South Korea’s industry ministry and the Defense Ministry, have restricted access to DeepSeek due to security concerns.
According to reports, the industry ministry temporarily blocked employee access to Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek on Wednesday, February 5, due to security concerns.
The defense ministry also blocked access to DeepSeek on its computers for military use on Thursday, February 6.
State-run Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power said it had blocked the use of AI services, including DeepSeek, earlier this month.
The blockage is not limited to government agencies. Several major companies, including Kakao Corp and SK Hynix, have also restricted access to DeepSeek due to security fears. South Korea’s information privacy watchdog has also requested information from DeepSeek about how it manages user information, but the company has failed to respond.
The ban makes South Korea the latest government to warn about or place restrictions on DeepSeek.
Australia and Taiwan have banned DeepSeek this week from all government devices over concerns that the Chinese artificial intelligence startup poses security risks.
Italy’s data protection authority ordered DeepSeek in January to block its chatbot in the country after the Chinese startup failed to address the regulator’s concerns over its privacy policy.
Some other governments in Europe, the U.S., and India are also examining the implications of using DeepSeek.
Chinese startup DeepSeek shocked the tech world when it launched its latest AI models last month. The company says its models are on a par with or better than products developed in the United States and are produced at a fraction of the cost.
