ChatGPT isn’t available in China, so should the US ban DeepSeek?

The DeepSeek AI innovation is all the tech world is thinking about right now. It's a great example of Chinese innovation despite the sanctions that prevent most AI firms from competing against ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Meta AI, and other AI chatbots from the US and Western world. It's also a great example of China retaliating against the US in the early years of the AI race. After being hit by sanctions, China responded in an unusual way.

DeepSeek excelled at software optimizations to deliver a reasoning AI model that's as good as ChatGPT o1 at a fraction of the cost. The release of DeepSeek R1 wiped out nearly $1 trillion from the US stock market, with NVIDIA among the top losers. At the same time, DeepSeek became the most downloaded iPhone app in the US App Store.

But as exciting as it might be to use DeepSeek right now, you should remember an important problem. All your DeepSeek data is sent to China, including the chats you have with the AI. You only get great privacy with DeepSeek if you run the open-source model locally on a computer rather than the iPhone or Android apps.

Some of the massive amounts of data DeepSeek gobbles up will be used to train DeepSeek R1 successors. Meanwhile, ChatGPT doesn't get the same privillege, as it's not exposed to the massive Chinese market.

DeepSeek privacy and the implications of having an AI model trained in China that could possibly mislead US users could be enough for some US government officials to consider banning DeepSeek AI and other similar products from China.

This isn't just about the TikTok precedent here. It's about reciprocity, considering that China doesn't allow products like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Meta AI. Apple Intelligence is also unavailable in China, as Apple has to partner with a local AI provider to release it. By the way, TikTok is also unavailable in China.

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