It seems every tech company on the planet has something AI-related to tout these days, but to most people, I’d wager “AI” is synonymous with ChatGPT. Sure, plenty of other AI platforms are out there, from Google Gemini, to Microsoft Copilot, to Apple Intelligence, but ChatGPT holds the enviable position of both having been the “first” to the generative AI boom, and having kept the crown in the years since. At least, that was the case—but now, a Chinese startup is threatening to take that crown for itself.
That company is DeepSeek, a name you’re likely familiar with if you have been following AI news. Like ChatGPT’s OpenAI, DeepSeek develops generative AI models. The company’s latest, R1, rolled out on Jan. 20, and made headlines for two key reasons: The model performs as well (if not a bit better) than OpenAI’s o1 model, and it does so while requiring far fewer resources.
R1’s power and efficiency were great enough to make an impact on the stock market, as shares of companies that are heavily invested in AI, including Nvidia, Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Meta, and Oracle tumbled in the wake of news about DeepSeek’s latest rollout. (These stocks have largely bumped back up since.) The general public is taking note too: As of this article, DeepSeek is the number one free app in both the iOS and Android app stores—ChatGPT is number two on iOS, and number eight on Android.
Long-story short, DeepSeek is the latest ChatGPT competitor to enter the AI race. Trying it out isn’t complicated (if you can even access it), but, on the flip side, there are reasons you might not want to.
How to try DeepSeek
DeepSeek is currently available as an app on iOS or Android, or available on the web. Unfortunately, accessing the service is currently somewhat difficult.
Using the app, you can try signing up for an account, either by providing an email or phone number and a password, or connecting your Google or Apple account. But you likely won’t have a ton of success doing so, unless you’re persistent. I wasn’t able to make an account the first time I tried, nor could I access the model on the website. After some time passed, the app finally let me in, but I still can’t get the web version to do so. Perhaps once the hype dies down a bit, it’ll be easier to access. But for the moment, good luck.
Once you are in, you’ll find the chatbot is quite similar to other generative AI bots you have tried. You can write out prompts for DeepSeek to answer, upload images and documents for analysis, or share a live camera feed. Like o1, DeepSeek has a reasoning model (DeepThink) that “thinks” through questions and prompts in an effort to provide more detailed and accurate results. You can also search the web, if you choose.
DeepSeek may censor more topics than other bots
However, where DeepSeek differs is in the content it censors from users. Like other chatbots, DeepThink shouldn’t return results for prompts it considers inappropriate, offensive, or dangerous. However, since DeepSeek is a Chinese-based company, its chatbot censors any result that, “incites to subvert state power and overthrow the socialist system,” or “endangers national security and interests and damages the national image,” as reported by The Guardian. As such, ask it about information regarding the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989, or why Xi Jinping is often compared to Winnie the Pooh, and you’ll get back, “Sorry, that’s beyond my current scope. Let’s talk about something else.”
The Guardian found that the bot will sometimes respond with answers to potentially controversial questions. When asked whether Taiwan was a country or not, DeepSeek did answer, albeit with an response that would likely be endorsed by the Chinese government. Notably, though, the outlet also found that while other chatbots offer fuller or more nuanced responses to these questions, they weren’t always forthcoming either: Gemini, for instance, also refused to answer certain questions, so it’s not like American-based chatbots are free from this type of censorship.
When I asked DeepSeek about the marginalized Uyghur people of China, the chatbot started to generate a full report, before deleting it and replacing it with the same error message. (The Chinese government has been accused of human-right violations and even genocide of the Uyghur population in Xinjiang.) The Guardian found similar “glitches” when testing these types of prompts with DeepSeek. It does seem like there are workarounds that trick the model into generating uncensored responses, although you might have to deal with some unconventional text formatting.
In general, don’t expect to see DeepSeek results that might piss off the Chinese government. Other than that, it’s basically ChatGPT.
Why you might not want to try DeepSeek (it’s a privacy nightmare)
It’s no secret that tech companies scrape a lot of our data in exchange for using their products, but that usually doesn’t deter users from downloading interesting new apps. But DeepSeek is a little more aggressive with its data collection policies than most.
Taking a look at DeepSeek’s privacy policy, you see some of the usual suspects: The company collects the information you provide when setting up an account, like date of birth, username, email address, phone number, even your password. It also collects information as you use the app, including what device you’re using, which OS it’s running, your IP address, system language, and general diagnostic information. Third-parties can share information they’ve collected about you with DeepSeek, so they know more about you as you use their service. They also employ cookies to track your activity, but you can disable this tracking in settings.
DeepSeek users a keylogger
From here, it’s important to know that DeepSeek is collecting everything you do with the AI model. All text inputs, audio inputs, prompts, files, feedback, or any other way you interact with the model are saved by the company. Again, this isn’t necessarily unique—you shouldn’t share any confidential or private information with any AI bot—but if you’re not comfortable with a company storing documents or recordings of your voice, think twice about what you share with DeepSeek.
It’s not awesome for DeepSeek to collect some of these data points, but they are far from the only company to do so. However, they push beyond the norm: Not only will DeepSeek collect any text you send its model, it tracks your keystroke patterns or rhythms as well. That means any time you interact with your keyboard while using DeepSeek, the company is analyzing both what you type, as well as how you type. Yikes.
DeepSeek stores your data in China
Also concerning is how DeepSeek stores the data it collects. Per the privacy policy, DeepSeek stores all information in servers in China, which was part of the reasoning behind the U.S. government’s push to ban TikTok. There is also no time limit on how long DeepSeek keeps your data, other than “as long as necessary.” This is also how Meta handles user data, but other companies have time limits: OpenAI has a similar clause about keeping data for as long as necessary, but says temporary chats are deleted from servers after 30 days. Meanwhile, Google says it’ll keep data for up to three years.
It’s no secret that big tech is rarely privacy friendly, and AI is no exception. Even in those terms, however,DeepSeek is not a fantastic option for the privacy-minded. If you want to try it while preserving some privacy, I recommend signing in with Apple, which lets you hide your real email address from the company. If you don’t have an Apple account, you could use an email platform like Proton or DuckDuckGo that offer similar shielding services. Just remember that even if DeepSeek can’t see your email, it’s still paying attention to how you type.
