AI assistant DeepSeek has rocketed to the top of the iPhone App Store free apps chart – but if you’re one of the many who have downloaded the Chinese app, maybe don’t get too attached.
The chatbot has been lauded for its speed, efficiency and powerful reasoning skills, drawing comparisons to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which DeepSeek knocked off the top of the iPhone chart. Not only that, but it runs on less advanced chips than the top US-based competitors, raising questions about whether Silicon Valley is the leading force in AI it portrays itself to be.
When it comes to China-based apps and services, the first question that often arises is around user privacy. The viral success of the DeepSeek app indicates that regardless of these concerns, the AI assistant is already on many people’s phones across the country. Whether you choose to trust or not trust DeepSeek with your data is totally your choice for now – but it might not be in the long run.
That’s because the US government is wary of Chinese technology, and could step in to interfere with the app’s success in the country. There’s precedent for this. You only need to look at what’s currently happening with TikTok, and what previously happened to Chinese smartphone-maker Huawei – you can’t buy a Huawei phone in the US (to say nothing of Huawei’s networking gear) – to see that if Washington seriously objects to a product or service with links to China due to national security concerns, it can and will take action.
Back in 2018, Huawei became the second biggest smartphone manufacturer in the world behind Samsung, pushing Apple down into third place. But following restrictions that resulted in Huawei being forced to retreat from selling phones in the US, the company’s global market share has continued to decline. Meanwhile, popular social media app TikTok has reached a crunch point in its own battle to stay active in the US, and it currently can’t be downloaded on any iPhones or Android phones in the country.
Unlike some chatbot rivals, the fact that DeepSeek is open source provides it with some level of protection. This means that anyone can run it on their computer and developers can tap into the API in a way that would be hard to restrict. But the DeepSeek app is still at risk.
Along with potential national security concerns, the US government may well view DeepSeek as a threat to the success of homegrown companies, in the same way Huawei was to Apple and TikTok is to US-based social media companies such as Meta. DeepSeek’s sudden virality coincides with what many consider to be an AI arms race, which the US hopes to dominate.
The politics of AI
Just last week, President Donald Trump announced US-based companies OpenAI and Nvidia as key partners in his new AI infrastructure project “Stargate” – and both companies have seen an immediate knock-on impact of DeepSeek’s success on their own businesses. OpenAI’s tool ChatGPT has slipped down the app store charts, while Nvidia’s stock has taken a tumble.
Trump hasn’t publicly reacted to DeepSeek’s sudden rise to prominence, but he’s historically been bullish about protecting American business interests. The line between what companies supposedly constitute a national security threat and those that pose a competitive threat to US businesses can often look blurred to observers. As such, Chinese companies making waves in the US need to be squeaky clean if they want to avoid becoming the target of government scrutiny.
Already, questions are being raised around DeepSeek given there seems to be censorship at play when it comes to answering questions about historical Chinese events that the country’s Communist government has long sought to suppress. There’s a strong chance that a blight such as this on the company’s reputation could be used as a reason to restrict access in the US.
Fighting the US government on a ban isn’t for the weak. Both TikTok and Huawei spent significant time and resources on lobbying in the US in attempts to disprove any reason for concern. DeepSeek will need deep pockets if it ends up in a similar situation. And whether you enjoy using it and find it to be superior to ChatGPT or any other AI assistants won’t matter.
Public support for TikTok in the US is strong, regardless of how the country’s political entities view the platform. At CNET, we’ve been consistently impressed by Huawei’s phones over the years, finding the company’s devices to be competitive with our favorite iPhones and Samsung Galaxy products. But national security concerns and political decision-making about Chinese companies will always hold more sway than the quality of their products.
All this is to say, if you do play around with DeepSeek, try not to get hooked. History shows us that Chinese technology can come and go from our lives in the blink of an eye, and we shouldn’t rely on DeepSeek becoming another mainstay competitor in the AI assistant market – in the US at least.
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