South Korea’s industry ministry has temporarily blocked its employees from accessing DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, due to security worries. The government is being careful about using generative AI services like DeepSeek and ChatGPT at work.
On Tuesday, the government told ministries and agencies to be cautious with AI tools. Earlier this month, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, a state-run company, stopped the use of DeepSeek. The defense ministry also blocked DeepSeek on military computers. The foreign ministry limited access to DeepSeek on computers that connect to outside networks. They didn’t give details about their security steps.
DeepSeek didn’t reply to a request for comment. It’s not clear if the ministries took any action against ChatGPT.
South Korea is now the latest country to limit or warn about DeepSeek. This week, Australia and Taiwan banned DeepSeek on all government devices, citing security risks. Italy’s data protection authority told DeepSeek to block its chatbot in January, saying the company didn’t address concerns about its privacy policy.
Other countries, including some in Europe, the U.S., and India, are also looking into the use of DeepSeek. South Korea’s information privacy watchdog plans to ask DeepSeek how it handles users’ personal data.
DeepSeek launched its latest AI models last month, surprising the tech world. The company claims its models are as good as or better than U.S. products and are cheaper to make.
In South Korea, Kakao Corp told its employees not to use DeepSeek due to security concerns. This happened a day after Kakao announced a partnership with OpenAI, a big name in generative AI.
South Korean tech companies are being more careful with generative AI. SK Hynix, a maker of AI chips, has restricted access to these services, allowing limited use when necessary. Naver, a major South Korean web portal, asked its employees not to use generative AI services that store data outside the company.
