Chinese envoy cites South Korea’s AI Action Summit action amid DeepSeek row

Seoul:  Chinese Ambassador Dai Bing on Thursday cited the joint communique on artificial intelligence (AI) signed by South Korea, China and other countries at a recent summit in Paris, amid Seoul’s moves to block access to China’s AI model DeepSeek over security concerns.

It was the first public comment by the top envoy to Seoul as South Korea has been taking steps to restrict access to DeepSeek across all government agencies, citing risks of personal and confidential data leaks.

South Korea’s spy agency has sent a notice to the government urging it to take precautions over its use, reports Yonhap news agency.

“At the Paris Artificial Intelligence Summit, China, along with South Korea, France and 60 other countries and international organisations jointly signed the Declaration on the Development of Inclusive and Sustainable AI for the Benefit of Humanity and the Planet,” reflecting a shared commitment to the safe, sustainable, and fair development of AI,” Dai said in a posting on the social media channel X.

Dai also noted that DeepSeek has “sparked global discussions.”

“As an active advocate and practitioner of global AI governance, China will continue to work with the international community, including South Korea, to meet global expectations and foster an open, inclusive, beneficial and non-discriminatory environment for AI development, ensuring it benefits all countries and people,” he said.

The participants at the Paris AI summit adopted the statement at the end of the two-day gathering on Tuesday (local time). The United States and Britain declined to sign the declaration, citing excessive regulations and other reasons.

Meanwhile, with the recent entry by China’s BYD into South Korea’s passenger EV market, concerns have been raised over potential personal data leaks to China through the vehicles manufactured by the company, industry observers said.

The security risks of private data leaks to China emerged following BYD’s official entry into the South Korean passenger vehicle market last month.

BYD’s first model launched here, the Atto 3, is equipped with connected car features, such as over-the-air (OTA) software update capability and navigation features, through which sensitive driver data could be transferred to China, according to the market watchers.

BYD Korea has addressed data protection concerns, stating, “We fully understand Korean customers’ concerns regarding personal data security and strictly comply with the Personal Information Protection Act.”

It said that data collected in South Korea is managed locally and not shared with BYD headquarters in China.

—IANS