The DeepSeek chatbot, known as R1, responds to user queries just like its U.S.-based counterparts. Early testing released by DeepSeek suggests that its quality rivals that of other AI products, while the company says it costs less and uses far fewer specialized chips than do its competitors.

The Chinese firm said training the model cost just $5.6 million. Microsoft alleges DeepSeek ‘distilled’ OpenAI’s work.

DeepSeek privacy concerns have led to investigations being opened in both the US and Europe, and seen the app removed from the App Store in Italy. It seems likely the same will happen in other countries. Italian’s privacy regulator questioned whether the app complied with GDPR, a tough privacy law that applies across 30 different countries …

The Chinese artificial intelligence app DeepSeek could not be accessed on Wednesday in Apple and Google app stores in Italy, the day after the country's data protection authority requested information on its use of personal data.