The German Federal Ministry of the Interior has yet to comment on the new Chinese AI application, “DeepSeek”, as of now. The Ministry stated that it cannot report on any specific anomalies regarding this AI application, a spokesperson said in response to a query from the German news agency.
The security agencies are indeed concerned with AI applications and potential manipulations, potential influences on public opinion and are currently paying close attention to the upcoming federal election, the spokesperson added. While there is an exchange of information with EU partners on cybersecurity, this is not specifically related to this AI application, the Ministry clarified. The situation will be monitored and if there are any findings, the Ministry will make a statement, it was said.
The new version of DeepSeek sent shockwaves through the stock market at the beginning of the week, particularly affecting US tech stocks, with Nvidia losing 17 percent and a staggering $600 billion in market value, the largest one-day loss in the history of the Wall Street.
The Chinese AI application can apparently keep up with models like ChatGPT, but does so with significantly less computational power, which is all the more remarkable given that the United States has been trying to restrict China’s access to high-performance AI chips for national security reasons.
Following China’s successful entry into the Western social media market with TikTok, it is now also entering the competition in the field of artificial intelligence, where China was previously considered non-competitive. As was the case with TikTok, a ban discussion has already begun in the US regarding DeepSeek.