Italy’s data protection authority on Thursday blocked access to the Chinese AI application DeepSeek to protect users' data and announced an investigation into the companies behind the chatbot. The authority,

Italy's data protection authority said on Tuesday it was seeking answers from Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) model DeepSeek on its use of personal data.

ROME (Reuters) - The Chinese artifical intelligence application DeepSeek was not available on Wednesday in Apple and Google app stores in Italy. A notice to customers on iPhone's App Store said the app was "currently not available in the country or area you are in."

China's DeepSeek AI has already caught the eye of a data protection watchdog, shortly after it went viral and became the top-rated free app on Apple's App Store in the US and other regions. As TechCrunch reports,

Italy's data protection authority said on Thursday it had blocked Chinese artificial intelligence model DeepSeek over a lack of information on its use of personal data. DeepSeek could not be accessed on Wednesday in Apple or Google app stores in Italy,

DeepSeek, a Chinese AI chatbot, swiftly rose to the top of app stores this week, and it's just as swiftly rising in priority for data protection watchdog agencies worldwide. DeepSeek's privacy policy has many aspects that might concern users,

Italy's data protection authority said on Thursday it had blocked Chinese artificial intelligence model DeepSeek over a lack of information on its use of personal data. The authority, known as Garante,