On Tuesday, January 28th, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt stated that US officials are reviewing the impact of the Chinese artificial intelligence application DeepSeek on national security. Meanwhile, the Italian government is seeking an explanation from DeepSeek regarding the collection and use of personal data.
Leavitt held her first briefing as the White House spokesperson on Tuesday. She mentioned that the National Security Council is assessing the impact of the DeepSeek application, calling it a “warning bell” for the American artificial intelligence industry.
She further added that earlier on Tuesday, she personally discussed the matter with the National Security Council, emphasizing the White House’s efforts to “ensure the leadership position of American artificial intelligence.”
The US House of Representatives Committee on China stated that, “According to a report released by the US House Committee on China, DeepSeek acknowledges that its “programming and knowledge base design follows Chinese (CCP) laws and regulations, as well as socialist core values.”
The news of the launch of an artificial intelligence (AI) model by the Chinese startup DeepSeek caused significant ripples in the global stock market on Monday. Shares of AI chip manufacturing giant Nvidia plunged nearly 17% due to the impact of the DeepSeek news, resulting in a $600 billion market value loss.
Investors are concerned that low-cost Chinese AI models could threaten the market dominance of American AI leaders like OpenAI and Google.
US President Trump stated on Monday that the DeepSeek application should serve as an incentive for American companies.
“The release of DeepSeek AI by Chinese companies should ring alarm bells for our industry. We need to focus on competition to succeed,” said Trump.
He mentioned that if Chinese companies can come up with cheaper AI technology, American companies can do the same.
“We always have ideas. We are always ahead. You don’t have to spend billions but less money. I hope you can come up with a similar solution,” Trump added.
Trump expressed that he is not worried about Beijing dominating the AI industry.
“We will dominate,” he said. “We will lead everything.”
The House Committee on China also called for strengthening export controls on the technologies that DeepSeek’s AI infrastructure relies on. The committee stated, “The US cannot allow a CCP model like DeepSeek to jeopardize our national security and advance its AI ambitions using our technology.”
Gregory Allen, Director of the Strategic and International Studies Center and former Pentagon AI Strategy Chief, believes that the US should not abandon established measures aimed at slowing down the development of the CCP’s AI industry.
Allen believes that the Chinese government wanted DeepSeek to attract attention in the first week of the Trump administration as a symbolic statement. He pointed out that the sudden attention on DeepSeek is similar to Huawei releasing a new high-performance smartphone during the same week that former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo visited China in 2023.
“If the conclusion is that export controls are now ineffective as they were then, it would be a huge mistake, but that is precisely what China’s goal is,” Allen said.
On Tuesday, Italy’s data protection agency announced that it is seeking an explanation from DeepSeek regarding its use of personal data.
The Italian regulatory authority, also known as Garante, wants to know what personal data DeepSeek’s application has collected, the sources from which it was collected, the purposes for the collection, the legal basis, and whether it is stored in China.
Garante stated in a release that DeepSeek and its subsidiaries have 20 days to provide an explanation, marking one of the initial regulatory measures against this Chinese startup company.
Italy’s Garante is one of the most active AI usage regulatory agencies in Europe.
On Tuesday, global tech stocks experienced a rebound. The tech stock rally boosted major Wall Street indices, with the S&P 500 rising by approximately 0.75%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average increasing by around 0.3%, and the tech-heavy NASDAQ index rising by about 1.7%.
Nvidia’s stock rose by 6%, while Apple’s stock surged nearly 4%.
“The initial market reaction was ‘sell first, understand later’,” said Stuart Dunbar, a partner at investment firm Baillie Gifford.
“Short-term news flow and price movements will not negate the profound impact that artificial intelligence could have on the world,” he added.
(Parts of this article were referenced from Reuters)