U.S. bans AI startup DeepSeek because of ‘threat vectors’ and China responds

The US Department of Homeland Security ordered federal civilian agencies to remove DeepSeek and its affiliated products from IT systems. This ban extends to third-party services developed using DeepSeek implementations and blocks future procurement. While the Department of Homeland Security cited threat vectors, specific security details remain unspecified. China responded to the move, which highlights the technology race between the two powers. Compliance may be difficult as identifying all third-party products using DeepSeek technology is currently unclear.