Data regulators in South Korea and Ireland announced on Friday they would seek clarification from Chinese AI startup DeepSeek on its handling

Data watchdogs in South Korea and Ireland said Friday they would ask Chinese AI startup DeepSeek to clarify how it manages users' personal information, as governments from around the world turned a spotlight on the service.

South Korea's information privacy watchdog plans to ask DeepSeek about how the personal information of users is managed, an agency official said on Friday.

Italy's digital information watchdog called for the government to block DeepSeek, China's new artificial intelligence chatbot after it said its company failed to turn over operation information to regulators.

Top White House advisers this week expressed alarm that China's DeepSeek may have benefited from a method that allegedly piggybacks off the advances of U.S. rivals called "distillation." The technique,

The start-up had become a key player in the “Chinese Large-Model Technology Avengers Team” that would counter US AI dominance, said another. China’s delight, however, spelled pain for several giant US technology companies as investors questioned whether DeepSeek’s breakthrough undermined the case for their colossal spending on AI infrastructure.