Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) model DeepSeek is facing allegations of excessively collecting information for AI training, prompting domestic corporations to impose bans one after another.
According to the industry on the 5th, Kakao, which announced an official partnership with OpenAI, recently notified its employees that it would prohibit the internal use of DeepSeek. Kakao's ban on DeepSeek is the first among major domestic information technology (IT) corporations. The ban stems from security concerns, as DeepSeek reportedly collects user device information, IP addresses, keyboard input patterns, and stores them on servers in China.
Naver is reportedly in discussions regarding the prohibition of DeepSeek's internal use, but so far, it has not issued any ban notifications or recommendations.
LG Uplus also released an information security notice regarding the ban on DeepSeek. According to the notice, LG Uplus prohibits the use of DeepSeek for work purposes on its internal network and advised that employees should refrain from using DeepSeek on personal PCs to protect personal information until the security stability of DeepSeek is confirmed.
SK Telecom has not issued any separate notifications regarding DeepSeek, but it is known to have been requesting its employees to avoid using external AI chatbots for some time. KT has yet to issue any related notifications.
DeepSeek has recently garnered attention in the industry for reportedly producing performance similar to other models like ChatGPT at a lower expense.