China has firmly stated that it does not, and will never, endorse the collection or storage of users' data through illegal means, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a press briefing on Thursday.
Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun addressed reports that several countries have restricted access to DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) service that recently topped the U.S. iPhone app store charts. Guo emphasized that the Chinese government prioritizes data privacy and security, operating strictly within legal frameworks.
He criticized the overextension of national security concepts and the politicization of trade, economics, and technology issues. Guo also reaffirmed China's commitment to protecting the legitimate rights and interests of its companies globally.
DeepSeek Brings Real-World Benefits
DeepSeek adopts an open approach to developing large AI models. Its latest products, including the V3 language model, R1 reasoning model, and Janus Pro vision model, are freely available for download. The company has also published research papers detailing the training methods of these models, allowing other developers to replicate the processes with their own datasets.
When downloaded and run locally, DeepSeek's models do not require an internet connection and cannot transmit users' private data to third parties—a feature not available in closed models developed by companies like OpenAI and Google. Marc Andreessen, a venture capitalist and co-founder of Netscape, described DeepSeek-R1 as \"a profound gift to the world.\"
Additionally, DeepSeek offers its online chat service free of charge, providing users worldwide with tools to understand and create internet memes, solve problems using logic, and generate innovative ideas.
Competitors Embrace More Open Strategies
The success of DeepSeek has encouraged other AI developers to explore more open approaches. Shortly after DeepSeek gained widespread attention, OpenAI announced that the search functions for its ChatGPT service would now be available for free without requiring user sign-up.
Alibaba, a leading Chinese internet company behind the Qwen series of open models, also unveiled its latest Qwen2.5-Max model, trained using methods similar to those employed for DeepSeek-V3. Additionally, Alibaba launched a web service allowing users to experience its models at no cost.
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China slams politicization of tech as nations restrict DeepSeek
cgtn.com
