South Korea’s industry ministry has temporarily blocked employee access to Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek due to security concerns, a ministry official said on Wednesday, as the government urges caution on generative AI services.
The government issued a notice on Tuesday calling for ministries and agencies to exercise caution about using AI services, including DeepSeek and ChatGPT, at work, officials said.
State-run Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power said it had blocked the use of AI services, including DeepSeek, earlier this month.
The defence ministry has also blocked access to DeepSeek on its computers used for military purposes, officials said on Thursday.
The foreign ministry has restricted access to DeepSeek on computers that connect to external networks, Yonhap News Agency said. The ministry said it cannot confirm specific security measures.
DeepSeek did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
It was not immediately clear if the ministries had taken any actions against ChatGPT.
The ban makes South Korea the latest government to warn about or place restrictions on DeepSeek.
Australia and Taiwan banned DeepSeek this week from all government devices over concerns that the Chinese artificial intelligence startup poses security risks.
Italy’s data protection authority ordered DeepSeek in January to block its chatbot in the country after the Chinese startup failed to address the regulator’s concerns over its privacy policy.
Some other governments in Europe, the US and India are also examining the implications of using DeepSeek.
South Korea’s information privacy watchdog plans to ask DeepSeek about how users’ personal information is managed.
