DeepSeek’s moment in the spotlight appears to be over, at least for now, as talk of ChatGPT’s image-generation abilities has dominated the AI conversations. Add all the new OpenAI announcements and Google’s various Gemini upgrades, like the Gemini 2.5 Pro model, and there’s almost no room left for DeepSeek.
But the breakthrough AI chatbot that shocked the US a few months ago is still available to anyone looking to try it. DeepSeek is available on the web and on mobile and, due to its open-source nature, can be installed on any computer.
That’s assuming you can use DeepSeek. Some US governmental branches, as well as certain countries, have already banned the Chinese AI program.
It turns out that the Trump administration is considering a broader ban on DeepSeek in the US, and that’s not necessarily part of the ongoing trade war with China. There’s also an AI war between the US and China, each vying for supremacy. The US has maintained a lead, but government officials worry that China might leapfrog American firms, which would become a big national security risk.
The Trump administration is looking at more than just a DeepSeek ban. The government has also moved to restrict Nvidia’s ability to sell AI chips to China after finding that companies like DeepSeek might have smuggled components needed for AI development from other countries.
It’s always been believed that DeepSeek might have managed to obtain Nvidia chips that it shouldn’t have been allowed to purchase in addition to those it could legally get.
DeepSeek stunned the world in January because it proposed a way to train advanced AI models similar to OpenAI’s best ChatGPT models without having access to the same high-end infrastructure as US companies. Instead, DeepSeek relied on software innovations to do it. That was the official narrative, though some speculated that DeepSeek had on hand more AI chips than it could justify.
Also, OpenAI openly accused DeepSeek of using ChatGPT to train DeepSeek and thus speed up the process without actually starting development from scratch.
These matters have been the scope of a report that the congressional committee on China began in February, The New York Times explains.
The congressional report noted that DeepSeek had access to 60,000 Nvidia chips, including 20,000 that should have been restricted. The report also found that DeepSeek used ChatGPT to accelerate DeepSeek development.
As for the renewed crackdown on Nvidia from the Trump administration, The New York Times says it came after security briefings that the White House and Commerce Department officials have received on the security risk DeepSeek poses.
These briefings indicated that some of the DeepSeek researchers working on the DeepSeek models have ties to the People’s Liberation Army and other institutions in China sanctioned for aiding the Chinese military. These findings seem to contradict reports that DeepSeek is a private company whose charismatic leader inspired his team of AI researchers to develop the recent DeepSeek innovations.
The New York Times does note that it’s common for private companies in China to have close ties to state-backed resources, but the new research indicates the relationship between DeepSeek and the Chinese government is closer than believed.
In light of the new findings, the Trump administration restricted Nvidia’s ability to sell AI chips to China. People familiar with the matter also told The New York Times that the administration is looking at penalties, blocking DeepSeek from buying US technology, and banning DeepSeek in the US.
While the Nvidia investigation is very much public, a DeepSeek ban has yet to be announced.