The jury is still out on whether the Chinese AI upstart DeepSeek is a game changer or part of an elaborate plan by its hedge fund parent company to short

DeepSeek, a Chinese AI chatbot, swiftly rose to the top of app stores this week, and it's just as swiftly rising in priority for data protection watchdog agencies worldwide.

France's privacy watchdog said on Thursday it will question DeepSeek to gain a better idea of how the Chinese startup's AI system works and any possible privacy risks for users.

Italy’s data protection authority has blocked use of Chinese tech startup DeepSeek’s AI application to protect Italians’ data and announced an investigation into the companies behind the chatbot

China's DeepSeek AI has already caught the eye of a data protection watchdog, shortly after it went viral and became the top-rated free app on Apple's App Store in the US and other regions. As TechCrunch reports,

Italy's data protection authority said on Thursday it had blocked Chinese artificial intelligence model DeepSeek over a lack of information on its use of personal data. DeepSeek could not be accessed on Wednesday in Apple or Google app stores in Italy,