US delays official blacklist of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek
The US is holding off on officially blacklisting Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, despite approving it last year. This delay comes as tech and trade tensions with China heat up.
Being on the blacklist would block DeepSeek from getting most American tech, but for now, DeepSeek, memory chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), and more than 100 other firms identified as national security risks are also stuck waiting.
DeepSeek budget AI concerns US officials
DeepSeek made headlines in early 2025 by launching a budget-friendly AI model that challenged the idea that cutting-edge AI has to be pricey.
But US officials worry the company might be helping China's military and trying to get advanced American chips through sneaky channels.
Anthropic identified a campaign involving DeepSeek and two other Chinese AI labs aimed at extracting capabilities from its AI systems, and OpenAI warned US lawmakers that DeepSeek was attempting to access its models, which adds another layer of drama to this ongoing tech rivalry.