DeepSeek quizzed by Irish watchdog over China data fears

DeepSeek earlier this month released a new open-source artificial intelligence model called R1 that can mimic the way humans reason, upending a market dominated by OpenAI and US rivals such as Google and Meta. (Photo Illustration by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek is being quizzed by Ireland’s privacy watchdog amid concerns over the way it’s processing data related to citizens in the nation.

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission said it’s written to the company to flag its worries over potential breaches of European Union privacy law. The watchdog is the main regulator for tech firms in the bloc due to many having their local base in the country.