PARIS (Reuters) – European Union authorities overseeing data protection will discuss artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek on Tuesday, a meeting agenda shows, amid concerns over how the Chinese company uses data.
DeepSeek rocked global markets last month by showing it could vie with U.S. heavyweights on human-like reasoning technology, while charging much less.
But some European privacy watchdogs have raised questions about whether the firm’s model uses the personal data of Europeans for training, and if the data could be transferred to China.
The Brussels-based European Data Protection Board has scheduled a discussion on DeepSeek at its monthly meeting this week, an agenda on its website shows.
National authorities will discuss the actions they have taken in response to DeepSeek and share information, Marie-Laure Denis, president of French privacy watchdog CNIL, told Reuters on the sidelines of the AI Action summit in Paris.
“The aim is to exchange information on the way in which authorities have sought to respond to DeepSeek and to harmonise actions,” she said.
CNIL said last month it would question DeepSeek to gain a better idea of how the Chinese startup’s AI system works and any possible privacy risks for users. It submitted its questions on Monday, the organisation told Reuters.
Ireland’s data protection authority has also requested information from the Chinese company while Italy’s watchdog has ordered DeepSeek to block its chatbot in the country after the Chinese firm failed to address the regulator’s concerns over its privacy policy.
Europe has been particularly protective of privacy rights and its General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is widely regarded as one of the most comprehensive and stringent data privacy laws in the world.
(Reporting by Florence Loeve in Paris and Foo Yun Chee in Brussels; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
