Deepseek was downloaded by millions. Delete it could come next

Many Americans are discovering the Powers for the search for the Deepseek, the innovative application of China generative that It arose to the discharge state No. 1 In Apple’s App Store last week. But in an era of rivalry and distrust of American-China technology, and NASA entities to the US Navy and the Taiwan government Prohibit the use of Deepseek In a matter of days, is millions of Americans wise let the application begin to play with your personal search consultations?

However, Deepseek’s sudden ascent, created in a fast timeline and a much lower budget than was previously believed, caught experts in unsuspecting years. skepticism About the statements remain and some estimates suggest The Chinese company underestimated costs for hundreds of millions of dollars. Privacy defenders were also taken by surprise, and their concerns are not based on AI development costs, and they already warn that Americans are becoming at risk and their privacy.

The amount of data and information that bad actors in China could harvest from Deepseek is 20 times worse than what could be collected from a Google search, says Dewardric McNeal, managing director and senior analyst of policies at the Risk Management firm LongView Global, which advises companies about companies about China’s strategy.

“It is a rich intelligence treasure,” said McNeal, who has studied the details of the data exchange requirements of the Chinese government for national companies.

There are obvious risks, he said, as the information of personal or health banking that can be stolen, and the prominent cybersecurity companies are already Inform vulnerabilities in Deepseek. Deepseek itself He informed having been beaten with a great cyber attack last week.

But McNeal is so concerned about the “biggest image” competition among nations.

“I want us to speak broader than the narrow data; we often talk about the degree to which this information paints a mental map through comprehensive consultations,” McNeal said.

For example, Chinese intelligence could use the widest patterns of consultations in Deepseek to learn about several US industries and sow the division between the public.

“The world will not end tomorrow because I logged in to Depseek,” McNeal said, but added that this does not mean that there is no considerable risk involved. The AI ​​open source approach, by one, could give China access to supply chains based in the United States at the industry level, which allows them to learn what companies are doing and compete better against them. “National Security professionals are thinking about it in those terms,” ​​McNeal said.

Matt Pearl, special advisor to the Deputy National Security Advisor of the National Security Council at the Biden Administration and now the Director of the Strategic Technologies Program of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Deepseek Privacy Policy It implies that people have control over what is collected, but should induce alarm.

“Depseek’s privacy policy is not worth it in which it is written,” Pearl said. Deepseek is subject to the laws of the RPC and Anything entry into the application is a fair game. Through keys pulsation patterns, a Deepseek user can be traced on all devices, the information collected from advertisers and Deepseek could also try to take advantage of cameras and microphones, according to Pearl.

“If you can do it technically in the application and the RPC determines that it is something they want to do, then it raises a danger,” Pearl said.

But the threat that Pearl said that most keep him at night is related to cybersecurity and the potential of an injection of massive malware. “It is difficult to emphasize all the different potential forms in which it could be used. And, in theory, it could be done in a single update of the application,” he said.

High Flyer officials, the coverage fund backed by Chinese who created Deepseek, did not respond to a comment request.

Chatgpt still far ahead of Deepseek

Despite the Large impact on markets And the main companies of AI, including Nvidia, Deepseek still has a long way to go to reach the rival chatgpt, which continues to propose a formidable war chest, a few days after the owners of Deepseek dominated the cycle of technological news and markets, OpenAi went on talks to A $ 40 billion financing round.

Deepseek remains far behind the chatgpt in consumer activity, according to the Semrush online analysis platform, and the Operai application maintains an average daily recount of daily visits in tens of millions. But Chatgpt has experienced a recent sauce in traffic: it had 22.1 million visitors on October 1, 2024, but that had decreased to 14.9 million for January 19, according to Semrush. At the same time, even before it became important national news, the Depseek’s online footprint was growing, from 2.3k average daily visits from the US. UU. On October 1, 2024 to 71.2K for 19 January (a week before causing the tank stock market).

Joe Jones, Director of Research and Ideas for the International Association of Privacy Professionals, a neutral non -profit organization in politics that promotes the privacy and governance of AI, says that disruptors such as Deepseek can make it difficult to work the work of the organization .

“It is a challenge for people to do that job when you have proliferation laws that are complex, diverse and, often, in tension, and technologies such as Deepseek that arrive from the left field, the state of rise and make you rethink a good Government, “Jones” said.

The challenges will not be resolved soon, according to Brendan Englot, director of the Stevens Institute for Artificial Intelligence at the Stevens Technology Institute. “The AI ​​is now a global international competition, and we will see advances worldwide,” said Englot.

The open source technology approach used by Deepseek- An approach promoted by Meta – It means that more deep seks are approaching. “There will be many more interruptions like this shortly,” said Englot.

For consumers, compensation must navigate with an understanding of data implications. The tools are being designed to improve lives increasing efficiency and creativity. “Therefore, it is tempting to share our data, but you must assume that it is a fair game that you use once you do it,” said Englot.

Deepseek’s success suggests that Export controls in advanced chips Destined to slow down Chinese efforts of AI might need to be even stricter, but they are not a silver bullet. “To be clear, they are not a way of bending the competition between the United States and China,” Dario Amodei, CEO of Gen Ai Startup Anthrope, wrote in a blog post this week. “In the end, AI companies in the United States and other democracies must have better models than those of China if we want to prevail. But we should not deliver the technological advantages of the Chinese Communist Party when we don’t have to do it.”

Pearl says that he can finally fall to the United States government to regulate or legislate.

“The government has the capacity under the same law that they had to prohibit Tiktok; they can prohibit Deepseek. The law that was approved not only applies to Tiktok,” said Pearl, citing provisions of the law related to a company controlled by A foreign adversary, or considered by the president of the United States as a threat to national security. Pearl thinks that despite President Trump moves away from a Tiktok prohibitionTechnological companies based in the United States will probably press more when it comes to IA.

“I think you will see US technology companies by pressing the administrator strongly and saying that Deepseek will corner the AI ​​market, and it is essential to have US companies at the forefront,” Pearl said. “Trump will listen to them at the highest levels. China has made champions by keeping the United States out of their markets, why should we allow them to dominate our markets?”