ISTANBUL

South Korea on Friday asked China's AI supermodel DeepSeek to clarify its policy on personal data collection.

In this regard, the Korean Personal Information Protection Commission is planning to send an official probe to DeepSeek’s headquarters in Hangzhou, the capital of the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang, to acquire information on the startup’s policy on personal data collection and how the data is utilized for AI training, according to Seoul-based Yonhap News.

"Depending on the response, we will take further steps such as a fact-finding review or an investigation if necessary," an official, as cited by Yonhap News, said.

Separately, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday also sought legislation to "minimize dangers, risks" posed by AI, Kyodo News reported.

Taiwan also said Friday that DeepSeek will be banned for government agencies to protect their data and information. The Digital Affairs Ministry stated that DeepSeek AI was a Chinese product and its operations were a "security concern."

Italy, too, blocked access to DeepSeek on Thursday to protect users’ data.

Microsoft and OpenAI had also announced Tuesday they are probing into whether a group associated with DeepSeek improperly accessed data from OpenAI’s systems, according to Bloomberg.

DeepSeek, which sparked a global tech sell-off this week, is said to have become the most downloaded free application in the US. Investors were surprised how the low-cost, open-source generative AI tool was able to compete with leading artificial intelligence apps such as OpenAI's ChatGPT.

US officials have expressed concern that the Chinese app could pose a threat to national security.

Backed by the Chinese hedge fund High-Flyer, DeepSeek launched its DeepSeek-R1 large language model on Jan. 20.

Chinese state-run media had said cyberattacks on DeepSeek escalated on Thursday, mostly from US IP addresses.