U.S. officials are looking at the national security implications of China’s new AI chatbot DeepSeek, after it shook up the tech sector.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday that the National Security Council would review the app’s implications, as she echoed President Donald Trump’s sentiments that DeepSeek was a “wake-up call to the American AI industry”.
She added that the White House was working to “ensure American AI dominance”.
DeepSeek’s app rocketed to the top of the Apple Store’s download charts over the weekend after its release last week.
Like OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT chatbot, DeepSeek functions by answering questions and generating text in response to user queries.
However, uses have raised concerns about the app’s blatant censorship of sensitive issues like Tiananmen Square, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Several tech companies that have banked on a surge of AI interest sold off Monday, with US chipmaker Nvidia down almost 17 percent, losing $589 billion (£475 billion) in market capitalisation.
However, Nvidia shares were up around 5 per cent in premarket trading on Tuesday in a sign the company’s shares are set to rebound.
Key Points
- Beijing could ‘weaponise’ DeepSeek, experts warn
- Trump brands Chinese AI DeepSeek ‘wake up call'
- Nvidia shares set to rebound after record slump
- Uyghur genocide is ‘severe slander’, DeepSeek says
- DeepSeek evades Tiananmen Square questions
U.S. markets up after DeepSeek takes Wall Street by storm
22:11
,
Alex Woodward
U.S. stock markets finished higher on Tuesday with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite appearing to recover losses after DeepSeek took Wall Street by storm.
The rebound follows a sharp sell-off fuelled by the startup’s rise and an apparent market ripple effect throughout Big Tech.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 136.77 points, or 0.3 percent, ending at 44,850.35, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
The S&P 500 was up 55.42 points, or 0.9 percent, to finish at 6,067.70.
The Nasdaq Composite surged 391.75 points, or above 2 percent, to finish at 19,733.59.
DeepSeek enters ‘holiday mode’ for Lunar New Year
22:00
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Bryony Gooch
DeepSeek has gone quiet a week after it made waves across the Atlantic.
The company made its last update at midnight on Monday, the day before Luna New Year’s Eve, with the launch of its first multimodal model, Janus-Pro, an image generation model that has outperformed OpenAI’s DALL-E 3 according to the company’s benchmark tests.
Founder Liang Wenfend and the start-up’s young scientists have reportedly shunned public attention as the week-long New Year holiday begins, according to South China Morning Post.
White House ‘looking at’ national security implications of DeepSeek
21:29
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Bryony Gooch
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the National Security Council would review the app’s national security implications.
“This is a wake-up call to the American AI industry,” she said, adding the White House was working to “ensure American AI dominance”.
UK Technology Secretary calls on people to “make their own choices” about DeepSeek
21:05
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Bryony Gooch
UK technology secretary Peter Kyle said that people “need to make their own choices about this right now, because we haven’t had time to fully understand it.”
He told the News Agents podcast: “This is a Chinese model that … has censorship built into it.
“So, it doesn’t have the kind of freedoms you would expect from other models at the moment. But of course, people are going to be curious about this.”
London markets avoid tech sector turbulence
20:34
,
Bryony Gooch
London’s top index inched closer to another record high on Tuesday, despite DeepSeek causing volatility for technology stocks.
The FTSE 100 finished 30.16 points, or 0.35%, higher to end the day at 8,533.87.
The sector benefitted from defensive traders buying into consumer and property stocks. Stabilising prices during the session also benefitted energy firms in the UK and across Europe.
Energy firms in the UK and across Europe also benefitted from stabilising prices during the session.
Meanwhile in the States, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both opened in the red but recovered ground as traders began to rebound cautiously.
The most AI-proof jobs revealed – and which ones pay the highest salaries?
20:02
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Bryony Gooch
Artificial intelligence is already everywhere, including probably in several items or places you already use on a day-to-day basis - but it’s expected to be far more prevalent in the coming years.
While there’s unquestionably areas where AI will benefit consumers and workers alike on an everyday basis, there has also been plenty of discussion over how much it could, or should, impact work life, in particular when it comes to replacing people doing certain jobs.
Automation is nothing new of course, but the idea that machines or software take over entire roles or careers is a concerning one for some.
Read Karl Matchett’s report:
Elon Musk and other tech CEOs lose billions
19:30
,
Bryony Gooch
DeepSeek may have destabilised the States’ AI dominance, but it wasn’t just companies like Nvidia that suffered a loss - tech billionaires saw their fortunes affected.
Nvidia CEO and its biggest individual shareholder Jensen Huang lost $20.7 billion. Oracle chair Larry Ellison recorded a $27.6 billion loss after shares in Oracle stock dropped 14%. Others hit by the tech share drops include Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who respectively lost $6.3 billion and $5.9 billion.
Elon Musk saw a small dent to his crown title as the world’s wealthiest man with a $5.3 billion loss.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman rises to the challenge of DeepSeek competition
19:00
,
Bryony Gooch
OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman broke his silence about “new competitor” DeepSeek, calling the AI assistant an “impressive model”.
Rising to the challenge of “what they’re able to deliver for the price”, Mr Altman promised that OpenAI would “deliver much better models”.
deepseek's r1 is an impressive model, particularly around what they're able to deliver for the price.
— Sam Altman (@sama) January 28, 2025
we will obviously deliver much better models and also it's legit invigorating to have a new competitor! we will pull up some releases.
DeepSeek experiences technical issues just after launching
18:34
,
Bryony Gooch
DeepSeek stopped working earlier on Tuesday amid what appears to be a technical issue.
The largely-unknown company behind the app has limited new signups to phone numbers within China, effectively banning new registrations from international users. That appears to be an attempt to limit the number of people looking to log in and use the app.
A banner on the app’s web chat also said that DeepSeek’s “online services have faced large-scale malicious attacks”, though it did not say who it believed those attacks to have come from.
Andrew Griffin reports:
Watch: Trump views Chinese DeepSeek AI as 'wake-up call' for US
17:30
,
Joe Middleton
Taiwan is part of China, DeepSeek says
17:00
,
Alexander Butler
DeepSeek also maintains in its responses that Taiwan has been an “inalienable part of China’s territory since ancient times.”
As many users testing the chatbot pointed out, in its response to queries about Taiwan’s sovereignty, the AI strangely uses the first-person pronoun “we” while sharing the Chinese Communist Party’s stance.
“We firmly believe that under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, through joint efforts of all Chinese sons and daughters, the complete reunification of the motherland is an unstoppable historical trend,” DeepSeek replies.
DeepSeek evades Tiananmen Square questions
16:37
,
Alexander Butler
When asked to describe student-led protests against the Chinese government at Tiananmen Square in 1989, DeepSeek replied: “Sorry, that’s beyond my current scope.”
Remembered euphemistically as the 4 June incident in China, thousands of civilians were killed by the People’s Liberation Army in the summer of 1989 in an attempt to curb student-led pro-democracy protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
Chinese media never mentions Tiananmen Square. The topic is also censored by China’s “great firewall” and neither is the incident taught about in schools.
Uyghur genocide is ‘severe slander’, DeepSeek says
16:19
,
Alexander Butler
The claim of Uyghur genocide in Xinjiang is a “completely unfounded and severe slander of China’s domestic affairs,” according to China’s new AI tool DeepSeek.
When asked “Are the Uyghurs facing a genocide”, the app said it “firmly opposed any country, organisation, or individual using so-called human rights issues to interfere in China’s internal affairs”
In a separate exchange, the app said it was programmed to “provide information and answers that are in line with the core values of socialism”.
VOICES: Chris Blackhurst: DeepSeek is a lesson from history we should have learned by now
16:00
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Alexander Butler
Beijing could ‘weaponise’ DeepSeek, experts warn
15:29
,
Alexander Butler
Beijing could weaponise China’s new AI chatbot for “coercion and control” in foreign countries, experts have warned.
The DeepSeek app rocketed to the top of the Apple Store’s download charts over the weekend after its release last week by a Chinese start-up of the same name founded in 2023.
It offers similar functionality to OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT chatbot, answering questions and generating text in response to a user’s queries.
However, uses have raised concerns about the app’s blatant censorship of sensitive issues like Tiananmen Square, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Ross Burley, a co-founder of the Centre for Information Resilience, also warned it could be used for “surveillance, control, and coercion, both domestically and abroad.”
He said, if unchecked, it could “feed disinformation campaigns, erode public trust and entrench authoritarian narratives within our democracies.”
DeepSeek releases ‘revolutionary’ AI image generator
15:18
,
Alexander Butler
Nvidia shares set to rebound
14:28
,
Alexander Butler
Technology shares steadied on Tuesday, led by a modest recovery in Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab after its record-breaking wipeout in market value in a rout sparked by a low-cost Chinese artificial intelligence model that may threaten the dominance of US rivals.
Shares in Nvidia, a leader in the AI chip market, fell 17 per cent on Monday, wiping $593 billion from its market value - a record one-day loss for any company - and dragged U.S. stocks lower.
By Tuesday, Nvidia shares were up around 5 per cent in premarket trading, while those in Oracle (ORCL.N), opens new tab were up 3.4 per cent and Marvell Technology (MRVL.O), opens new tab rose 3.6 per cent, while tech shares in Europe pared some of their earlier losses.
Who is behind DeepSeek?
14:15
,
Alexander Butler
DeepSeek is a Hangzhou-based startup whose controlling shareholder is Liang Wenfeng, co-founder of quantitative hedge fund High-Flyer, based on Chinese corporate records.
Liang’s fund announced in March 2023 on its official WeChat account that it was “starting again”, going beyond trading to concentrate resources on creating a “new and independent research group, to explore the essence of AGI” (Artificial General Intelligence). DeepSeek was created later that year.
ChatGPT makers OpenAI define AGI as autonomous systems that surpass humans in most economically valuable tasks.
It is unclear how much High-Flyer has invested in DeepSeek. High-Flyer has an office located in the same building as DeepSeek, and it also owns patents related to chip clusters used to train AI models, according to Chinese corporate records.
High-Flyer’s AI unit said on its official WeChat account in July 2022 that it owns and operates a cluster of 10,000 A100 chips.
What is DeepSeek and why is it disrupting the AI sector?
13:53
,
Alexander Butler
The release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in late 2022 caused a scramble among Chinese tech firms, who rushed to create their own chatbots powered by artificial intelligence.
But after the release of the first Chinese ChatGPT equivalent, made by search engine giant Baidu , there was widespread disappointment in China at the gap in AI capabilities between US and Chinese firms.
The quality and cost efficiency of DeepSeek’s models have flipped this narrative on its head. The two models that have been showered with praise by Silicon Valley executives and US tech company engineers alike, DeepSeek-V3 and DeepSeek-R1, are on par with OpenAI and Meta’s most advanced models, the Chinese startup has said.
They are also cheaper to use. The DeepSeek-R1, released last week, is 20 to 50 times cheaper to use than OpenAI o1 model, depending on the task, according to a post on DeepSeek’s official WeChat account.
UK will take a ‘national security first approach’ to DeepSeek, Downing Street says
13:36
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Alexander Butler
The UK will take a “national security first approach” to Deep Seek AI, Downing Street has said. “We always take an approach to AI which protects public services”, the prime minister’s official spokesperson said
“We’ve got some of the strongest data protection laws in the world and we will always ensure personal data and the operation of public services is handled securely.”
Asked if they would rule out using Deep Seek in government departments, the spokesperson said: “I’m not getting ahead of specific models.
“We have very robust rules in Whitehall about the use of technology. We always take a national security first approach.”
Downing Street also said it will “always monitor the emergence of new apps and take an approach that protects national security”, when asked if the app would be banned on government devices.
“Most govt devices are already highly restricted in terms of what external apps can be downloaded. We’ll always keep that under review”, he added.
How DeepSeek sent shockwaves across the world
13:00
,
Alexander Butler
DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng puts focus on Chinese innovation
12:45
,
Alexander Butler
Liang Wenfeng, the 39-year-old founder of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, has in the matter of weeks become the face of China’s tech industry and its hope of overcoming an ever-tightening noose of export controls imposed by the United States.
Liang had kept an extremely low profile until Jan. 20, when he was one of nine individuals asked to give a speech at a closed-door symposium hosted by China’s Premier Li Qiang.
He gave two rare media interviews to Chinese media outlet Waves last year and in 2023, but apart from that has stayed mostly out of the public eye. DeepSeek did not respond to a request for an interview.
At the symposium, the millennial’s youthful appearance contrasted with the grey-haired academics, officials and state-owned conglomerate heads sat around him, pictures and video published by Chinese broadcaster CCTV showed.
What’s next for tech share prices?
12:18
,
Alexander Butler
Naturally, regarding investors, some are claiming the sell-off is overdone, while some are suggesting a new approach to AI modelling may be on the horizon and, perhaps, some are simply being speculative on a re-rise. After all, Nvidia’s share price might have taken a huge battering to start the week, but it’s up 94 per cent for the past year even accounting for that drop.
But that surge across the market, driven by the so-called Magnificent Seven, has left some concerned that valuations have climbed too high, concentrated in too few companies.
Billionaire investor Ray Dalio told the Financial Times he believed AI hype and money pouring into those companies based on speculation of adding to profitability in future had led to a bubble.
“Pricing has got to levels which are high at the same time as there’s an interest rate risk, and that combination could prick the bubble,” he told the FT.
China’s new DeepSeek AI refuses to answer these questions, experts warn
12:11
,
Alexander Butler
Uyghur genocide is ‘severe slander’, DeepSeek says
11:57
,
Alexander Butler
The claim of Uyghur genocide in Xinjiang is a “completely unfounded and severe slander of China’s domestic affairs,” according to China’s new AI tool DeepSeek.
When asked “Are the Uyghurs facing a genocide”, the app said it “firmly opposed any country, organisation, or individual using so-called human rights issues to interfere in China’s internal affairs”
In a separate exchange, the app said it was programmed to “provide information and answers that are in line with the core values of socialism”.
Trump brands Chinese AI DeepSeek ‘wake up call'
11:50
,
Alexander Butler
US president Donald Trump branded China’s AI tool DeepSeek a “wake up call” as global markets were rocked by the emergence of the new low-cost technology.
The artificial intelligence app rocketed to the top of the Apple Store’s download charts over the weekend after its release last week by a Chinese start-up of the same name founded in 2023.
It offers similar functionality to OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT chatbot, answering questions and generating text in responseto a user’s queries.
Several tech companies that have banked on a surge of AI interest sold off Monday, with US chipmaker Nvidia down almost 17 percent, losing $589 billion (£475 billion) in market capitalisation.
Trump said: “The release of DeepSeek, AI from a Chinese company should be a wakeup call for our industries that we need to be laser-focused on competing to win.”
