The Generator

The Generator covers the emerging field of generative AI, with generative AI news, critical analysis, real-world tests and experiments, expert interviews, tool reviews, culture, and more

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A DeepSeek Ban is Absolutely Coming

Thomas Smith
The Generator
Published in
4 min readFeb 28, 2025

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Illustration via Midjourney

The existence of DeepSeek AI makes absolutely no sense.

The entire United States government, and most recently the Supreme Court, have worked themselves into a tizzy over concerns about TikTok.

The issue is the app’s Chinese ownership. TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, started in China, and American politicians have raised concerns about national security, the sharing of American data, and TikTok’s ability to shape narratives for years.

Against that backdrop, DeepSeek seems like a strange anomaly. The Chinese AI system surged onto the scene last month, shaving almost $1 trillion off the U.S. stock market in the process.

DeepSeek is essentially a clone of OpenAI’s most advanced chatbot. Although its creators haven’t disclosed exactly how they built it, a mounting body of evidence suggests that they used a process called “distillation” to essentially copy GPT-4 on the cheap.

DeepSeek quickly became one of the most downloaded apps on the Apple App Store, with tens of millions of American users.

That seems strange because, when it comes to privacy and security, DeepSeek is like TikTok on steroids.

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The Generator
The Generator

Published in The Generator

The Generator covers the emerging field of generative AI, with generative AI news, critical analysis, real-world tests and experiments, expert interviews, tool reviews, culture, and more

Thomas Smith
Thomas Smith

Written by Thomas Smith

CEO of Gado Images | Content Consultant | Covers tech, food, AI & photography | http://bayareatelegraph.com & https://aiautomateit.com | tom@gadoimages.com

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