Will China’s DeepSeek AI, which became an overnight sensation, face the same kind of security scrutiny as TikTok?

The company, owned by the hedge fund High-Flyer and headquartered in Hangzhou, China, is already drawing criticism for concerns about transparency and potential influence by the People’s Republic of China. Social media users have been criticizing DeepSeek’s AI model for refusing to answer political questions about the Chinese government and President Xi Jinping.

When asked whether Xi resembles Winnie the Pooh, or what famous picture shows a man with grocery bags standing in front of tanks in Tiananmen Square, the chatbot connected to the