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Before, DeepSeek, a little-known Chinese startup, was dominating headlines and app charts after its new AI chatbot was released, sparking a global tech sell-off and shattering the assumption of America’s dominance in the tech race.
However, users who signed up for the chatbot and its open-source technology are now being confronted with the Chinese Communist Party’s brand of censorship and information control.
When questions veer into territory that would be restricted or heavily moderated on China’s domestic internet, the responses reveal aspects of the country’s tight information controls.
The popularity of Chinese apps like TikTok and RedNote has already raised national security concerns among Western governments – as well as questions about the potential impact on free speech and Beijing’s ability to shape global narratives and public opinion.
The introduction of DeepSeek’s AI assistant, which is free and rocketed to the top of app charts, raises the urgency of those questions and spotlights the online ecosystem from which they have emerged.
When the R1 model is asked to explain who is winning the AI race, summarize the latest executive orders from the White House, or tell a joke, a user gets similar answers to those spewed out by American-made rivals OpenAI’s GPT-4, Meta’s Llama, or Google’s Gemini.
However, when questions delve into terrain that would be restricted or heavily moderated on China’s domestic internet, the responses reveal aspects of the country’s tight information controls.
The Chinese Communist Party has ultimate authority over what information and images can and cannot be shown – part of their iron-fisted efforts to maintain control over society and suppress all forms of dissent.
An audit by US-based information reliability analytics firm NewsGuard found that DeepSeek’s older V3 chatbot model failed to provide accurate information about news and information topics 83% of the time, ranking it tied for 10th out of 11 in comparison to its leading Western competitors. It is unclear how the newer R1 model stacks up.
DeepSeek’s V3 bot, released late last year, returns different answers, including ones that appear to rely more heavily on China’s official stance.
China analyst Isaac Stone Fish said that if DeepSeek becomes a global AI leader, it would have “catastrophic” consequences for free speech and free thought globally, as it would give the ability to control the narrative on major global issues, including history itself.
The question is no longer just about AI – it’s about who gets to control the narrative, and how the world will be shaped.
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