Chinese state-linked social media accounts amplified narratives celebrating the launch of Chinese start-up DeepSeek’s (深度求索) artificial intelligence (AI) models last week, days before the news tanked US tech stocks, according to online analysis firm Graphika.
The accounts involved in the effort, including those of Chinese diplomats, embassies and state media, amplified media coverage of the launch and promoted the idea that DeepSeek challenged US dominance in the AI sector, New York-based Graphika said in a report it provided to Reuters on Thursday.
The messaging was rolled out on platforms such as Elon Musk’s X and Meta Platforms Inc’s Facebook and Instagram, as well as Chinese services Toutiao (頭條) and Weibo (微博), Graphika said.
Photo: Reuters
“This activity shows how China is able to quickly mobilize a range of actors that seed and amplify online narratives casting Beijing as surpassing the US in critical areas of geopolitical competition, including the race to develop and deploy the most advanced AI technologies,” Graphika chief intelligence officer Jack Stubbs said.
“We’ve consistently seen overt and covert Chinese state-linked actors among the first movers in leveraging AI to scale their operations in the information environment,” he said.
Graphika said it also found a video featuring pro-China, anti-Western content on a YouTube channel whose activity resembled that of Shadow Play, a coordinated influence campaign involving at least 30 YouTube channels that was first identified by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in 2023.
Graphika said it found a small spike in discussion about DeepSeek’s advancements in relation to OpenAI’s ChatGPT on X immediately after DeepSeek released its models on Jan. 20, followed by a much larger uptick that started that Friday and continued to build over the weekend.
By Monday, DeepSeek’s free AI assistant had overtaken US rival ChatGPT in downloads from Apple Inc’s app store and global investors dumped US tech stocks, wiping US$593 billion off chipmaker Nvidia Corp’s market value in a record one-day loss for any company on Wall Street.
DeepSeek researchers claim to have developed aspects of their AI model at a far lower cost than US rivals, sparking worries that US companies that have plowed tens of billions of dollars into AI data centers could face a price war with China.
The start-up’s rise to prominence was celebrated in China as a sign that the nation was beating back Washington’s attempts to contain China’s tech industry with curbs on technology exports.
In the US, DeepSeek’s accomplishments sparked accusations that it had improperly accessed technology from OpenAI and other leaders, though the allegations remain unproven.
Meanwhile, data watchdogs in South Korea and Ireland said yesterday they would ask DeepSeek to clarify how it manages users' personal information, as governments from around the world turned a spotlight on the service.
"We intend to submit our request in writing as early as Friday to obtain information about how DeepSeek handles personal data," an official from South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission told AFP, without giving further details.
Ireland's Data Protection Commission told AFP it was "requesting information on the data processing conducted in relation to data subjects in Ireland" from DeepSeek.
Earlier this week Italy launched an investigation into the R1 model and blocked it from processing Italian users' data.
The Italian Data Protection Agency is asking what information is used to train DeepSeek's AI system and, if the data is scraped from the internet, how users are informed about the processing of their data.
French watchdog CNIL also said it would question DeepSeek about its chatbot "to better understand the way it works and the risks regarding data protection."
Australian Minister for Industry and Science Ed Husic this week also raised privacy concerns over the company's AI service and urged users to think carefully before downloading it.
Additional reporting by AFP
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