What Has Happened Since DeepSeek Launched?
Since launching to the public on Jan. 20, 2025, Chinese startup DeepSeek’s open-source AI-powered chatbot has taken the tech world by storm.
Legal Issues For Copyright And Data Protection
OpenAI and Microsoft are investigating whether DeepSeek used OpenAI’s API to integrate their AI models into DeepSeek’s own models. This raises questions about copyright and data protection. OpenAI claims it has evidence of DeepSeek distilling the outputs of OpenAI to build a rival model, which is against OpenAI’s terms of service, but likely not against the law.
DeepSeek Security Breach
Wiz Research, a company specializing in cloud security, announced it was able to hack DeepSeek and expose security risks with relative ease on Jan. 29. It found a publicly accessible database belonging to DeepSeek, which allowed it full control over database operations and access to user data and API keys. Wiz alerted the DeepSeek team, and they took immediate action to secure the data. However, it is unclear who else accessed or downloaded the data before it was secured.
National Security Concerns Similar To TikTok
There are national security concerns about DeepSeek’s data collection policies reminiscent of fears about TikTok, which saw a similar rise in global prominence out of Chinese-based company ByteDance. The U.S. government briefly banned TikTok in January 2025, citing concerns about how the company was collecting data about users. There were also fears that the Chinese government could use the platform to influence the public in the U.S.
Chinese Censorship
Regardless of whether you run DeepSeek locally or in its app, DeepSeek’s censorship is present for queries deemed sensitive by the Chinese government, according to a Wired investigation. However, there are ways of getting around the censorship, but it is difficult. Doing so would require running on your own servers using modified versions of the publicly available DeepSeek code, which means you’d need access to several highly advanced GPUs to run the most powerful version of R1.
Questions About Cost
Much has been written about the cost of building DeepSeek. Initial claims by DeepSeek were that it took under $6 million to build based on the rental price of Nvidia’s GPUs. However, a report from SemiAnalysis, a semiconductor research and consulting firm, has since argued that DeepSeek’s hardware spend was higher than $500 million, along with additional R&D costs.
The Implications Of Being Open Source
DeepSeek-R1 is as "open-source" as any LLM has been thus far, which means anyone can download, use, or modify its code. This could lead to more innovation in places with more limited access to the tech needed to build AI solutions.
The Future of SEO
So, what does this all really mean for search professionals? The way I see it, DeepSeek is just the next splashy AI chatbot with search capabilities in the rapidly changing world of SEO. It’s important to understand that while tools like DeepSeek and ChatGPT use advanced natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning, they still simply provide answers to real questions that real people ask.
Conclusion
Whether DeepSeek will stick and grow in prominence remains to be seen. If other governments follow Australia, Italy, and potentially the U.S. to ban DeepSeek, that would limit its potential for growth. And much as DeepSeek rose to prominence rapidly by providing a blueprint for others and significantly lowering costs, a new market-moving AI could always be just around the corner. Regardless of what happens with DeepSeek, we are at the beginning of a very rapid period of innovation in AI technology. As SEO professionals, we need to be prepared to test a surge of new platforms and reverse engineer how they arrive at their responses to user queries.
FAQs
Q: What is DeepSeek?
A: DeepSeek is an open-source AI-powered chatbot developed by a Chinese startup.
Q: How did DeepSeek achieve its rapid success?
A: DeepSeek achieved its rapid success by providing a blueprint for others and significantly lowering costs.
Q: What are the legal issues surrounding DeepSeek?
A: OpenAI and Microsoft are investigating whether DeepSeek used OpenAI’s API to integrate their AI models into DeepSeek’s own models.
Q: What are the security concerns surrounding DeepSeek?
A: There are concerns about the security of DeepSeek, including a recent security breach and potential data protection issues.
Q: Can I use DeepSeek?
A: Yes, DeepSeek is open-source, and anyone can download, use, or modify its code.
Q: What are the implications for search professionals?
A: DeepSeek is just the next splashy AI chatbot with search capabilities in the rapidly changing world of SEO.
