DeepSeek fears: South Korea aims to develop homegrown ChatGPT

Seoul:  South Korea will push to develop its own version of ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot created by US-based OpenAI, acting President Choi Sang-mok said on Thursday, pledging full-scale government support for research and development (R&D).

Choi made the remarks during a high-level committee meeting aimed at positioning South Korea among the world’s top three AI powerhouses. The committee was established to foster collaboration between the government and the private sector.

“The global AI race has entered a new phase,” Choi said, emphasizing that major AI powerhouses have announced astronomical-scale investments in AI infrastructure, reports Yonhap news agency.

He pointed to the emergence of DeepSeek, a large-scale AI model developed by a Chinese startup, as both a potential risk and a new opportunity for South Korea, which is considered a latecomer in the sector.

“The government will provide full support for the development of world-class AI models,” Choi said.

To bolster AI capabilities, the government plans to secure 10,000 high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs) within this year. As of the end of 2023, South Korea had approximately 2,000 GPUs, a critical component for AI development.

Choi said the government will provide large-scale GPU resources and research funding to ensure the country’s leadership in AI innovation.

Earlier this week, South Korea’s data protection regulator confirmed that the DeepSeek chatbot, developed by a China-based artificial intelligence startup, sent the nation’s user data to a third party, the Chinese owner of TikTok, ByteDance.

The confirmation came after the regulator, the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC), announced it has temporarily suspended new downloads of DeepSeek in South Korea over concerns about its data collection practices.

It was the first time the regulator confirmed potential leaks of user data by DeepSeek to a third party. Under South Korean law, explicit consent is required from a user if the user’s personal information is provided to a third party.

—IANS