Chinese AI firm DeepSeek says it is facing “large-scale malicious attacks”, which are affecting its services.
Chinese state media is citing cyber security experts who say the attacks are originating from US-based IP addresses, which the BBC is unable to verify.
This comes hours after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the US National Security Council (NSC) is “looking into” DeepSeek.
The little-known Chinese firm’s reportedly cheap yet powerful AI model surprised Silicon Valley, which has splurged billions on AI infrastructure – just last week Trump announced an AI plan worth half a trillion dollars involving top US firms.
DeepSeek did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BBC News.
“Due to large-scale malicious attacks on DeepSeek’s services, registration may be busy,” a banner on the company’s website said on Wednesday.
This is the second such attack DeepSeek has reported this week – but Yuyuan Tantian, a social media channel under China’s state broadcaster CCTV, claims the firm has faced “several” cyber attacks in recent weeks, which have increased in “intensity”.
DeepSeek shot to fame only last week as AI geeks lauded its latest AI model and people began downloading its chatbot on app stores. Its rise caused a slump in US tech stocks, many of which have since recovered some ground.
But America’s AI industry was shaken by the apparent breakthrough, especially because of the prevailing view that the US was far ahead in the race. A slew of trade restrictions banning China’s access to high-end chips was believed to have cemented this.
Although China has boosted investment in advanced tech to diversify its economy, DeepSeek is not one of the big Chinese firms that have been developing AI models to rival US-made ChatGPT.
Experts say the US still has an advantage – it is home to some of the biggest chip-makers – and that it’s unclear yet exactly how DeepSeek built its model and how far it can go.
But the White House has raised national security concerns amid reports that the US navy has banned its staff from using DeepSeek’s app.
“I spoke with [the National Security Council] this morning, they are looking into what [natinal security implications] may be,” said Ms Leavitt.
Speaking on Fox News, the recently appointed “White House AI and crypto czar”, David Sacks, suggested that DeepSeek may have used the models developed by top US firm OpenAI to get better.
