"For any openly available AI model, with a web or app interface - including but not limited to DeepSeek - the prompts, or questions that are asked of the AI, then become available to the makers of that model, as are the answers," said Emily Taylor, chief executive of Oxford Information Labs "So, anyone working on confidential or national security areas needs to be aware of those risks," she told the BBC. Dr Richard Whittle from University of Salford said he had "various concerns about data and privacy" with the app, but said there were "plenty of concerns" with the models used in the US too. "Consumers should always be wary, especially in the hype and fear of missing out on a new, highly popular, app," he said. The UK data regulator, the Information Commissioner's Office has urged the public to be aware of their rights around their information being used to train AI models. Asked by BBC News if it shared the Australian government's concerns, it said in a statement: "Generative AI developers and deployers need to make sure people have meaningful, concise and easily accessible information about the use of their personal data and have clear and effective processes for enabling people to exercise their information rights.

Tech ethics organizations have filed an FTC complaint against the AI companion app Replika, alleging that the company employs deceptive marketing to target vulnerable potential users and encourages emotional dependence on their human-like bots. Replika offers AI companions, including AI girlfriends and boyfriends, to millions of users around the world. In the new complaint, the Young People's Alliance, Encode, and the Tech Justice Law Project accuse Replika of violating FTC rules while increasing the risk of users' online addiction, offline anxiety, and relationship displacement. Replika did not respond to multiple requests for comment from TIME. The allegations come as AI companion bots are growing in popularity and raising concerns about mental health.

Chinese tech startup DeepSeek's new artificial intelligence chatbot has sparked discussions about the competition between China and the U.S. in AI development, with many users flocking to test the rival of OpenAI's ChatGPT. DeepSeek's AI assistant became the No. 1 downloaded free app on Apple's iPhone store on Tuesday afternoon and its launch made Wall Street tech superstars' stocks tumble. Observers are eager to see whether the Chinese company has matched America's leading AI companies at a fraction of the cost. The chatbot's ultimate impact on the AI industry is still unclear, but it appears to censor answers on sensitive Chinese topics, a practice commonly seen on China's internet. In 2023, China issued regulations requiring companies to conduct a security review and obtain approvals before their products can be publicly launched.

United States President Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders on Monday aimed at reshaping military policies, including the removal of diversity, equity and inclusion programmes (DEI), reinstating service members discharged for refusing COVID-19 vaccines, and barring transgender people from military service. Earlier in the day, newly confirmed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who secured the position after a narrow Senate vote, said he would ensure the orders "are complied with rapidly and quickly". Here is the latest news from Monday and a look ahead for the week. Speaking with reporters on board Air Force One on Monday, Trump said that he signed four executive orders. Among those, Trump revealed he signed an order to establish a framework for developing what his administration calls an "American Iron Dome," a missile defence system designed to protect the homeland.

Donald Trump has said that the launch of a chatbot by China's DeepSeek is a "wake-up call" for US tech firms in the global race to dominate artificial intelligence. The emergence of DeepSeek, which has built its R1 model chatbot at a fraction of the cost of competitors such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini, wiped 1tn ( 800bn) in value from the leading US tech index on Monday. Nvidia, a leading maker of computer chips that has experienced explosive growth amid the AI boom, had 600bn wiped off its market value in the biggest one-day fall in US stock market history. "The release of DeepSeek, AI from a Chinese company, should be a wake-up call for our industries that we need to be laser-focused on competing to win," said Trump. He pointed to DeepSeek's ability to apparently deliver the same performance as existing AI models with far fewer resources, threatening the dominance of the US-led AI boom.

DeepSeek, a little-known Chinese startup, has sent shockwaves through the global tech sector with the release of an artificial intelligence (AI) model whose capabilities rival the creations of Google and OpenAI. DeepSeek-R1's creator says its model was developed using less advanced, and fewer, computer chips than those employed by tech giants in the United States. In a research paper released last week, the model's development team said they had spent less than 6m on computing power to train the model – a fraction of the multibillion-dollar AI budgets enjoyed by US tech giants such as OpenAI, Alphabet and Meta. Marc Andreessen, one of the most influential tech venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, hailed the release of the model as "AI's Sputnik moment". The sudden emergence of a small Chinese startup capable of rivalling Silicon Valley's top players has challenged assumptions about US dominance in AI and raised fears that the sky-high market valuations of companies such as Nvidia, Alphabet and Meta may be detached from reality. On Monday, Nvidia, which holds a near-monopoly on producing the semiconductors that power generative AI, lost nearly 600bn in market capitalisation after its shares plummeted 17 percent.

Chinese AI bot DeepSeek has disrupted the stock market, with US President Donald Trump calling its rise "a wake-up call" for the US tech industry. DeepSeek - which claims its model was made at a fraction of the cost of its rivals - has become the most downloaded free app in the US just a week after it was launched. The BBC's AI correspondent, Marc Cieslak discusses why the large language model has caused shockwaves.

The launch of a new chatbot by Chinese artificial intelligence firm DeepSeek triggered a plunge in US tech stocks as it appeared to perform as well as OpenAI's ChatGPT and other AI models, but using fewer resources. By Monday, DeepSeek's AI assistant had rapidly overtaken ChatGPT as the most popular free app in Apple's US and UK app stores. Despite its popularity with international users, the app appears to censor answers to sensitive questions about China and its government. Chinese generative AI must not contain content that violates the country's "core socialist values", according to a technical document published by the national cybersecurity standards committee. That includes content that "incites to subvert state power and overthrow the socialist system", or "endangers national security and interests and damages the national image".

Powerful artificial intelligence software from Chinese startup DeepSeek indicates that its engineers built a competitive model despite U.S. attempts to curtail China's tech development, raising questions about the effectiveness of Washington's trade curbs. The company's recently released R1 model, which it claims to have developed at a fraction of the cost borne by rival AI companies, sent tech stocks into a tailspin Monday as investors questioned the need to spend billions on advanced hardware. It's also sparked a debate in Washington about the best strategy to prevent China from developing cutting-edge AI, which U.S. policymakers see as a national security risk. The U.S. imposed sweeping controls on the sale of the most advanced Nvidia chips to China in October 2022, and has ratcheted up the measures each year since. But Nvidia has responded by designing new semiconductors for the Chinese market -- including those DeepSeek likely used to build R1.

We study long-run progress in artificial intelligence in a quantitative way. Many measures, including traditional ones such as patents and publications, machine learning benchmarks, and a new Aggregate State of the Art in ML (or ASOTA) Index we have constructed from these, show exponential growth at roughly constant rates over long periods. Production of patents and publications doubles every ten years, by contrast with the growth of computing resources driven by Moore's Law, roughly a doubling every two years. We argue that the input of AI researchers is also crucial and its contribution can be objectively estimated. Consequently, we give a simple argument that explains the 5:1 relation between these two rates. We then discuss the application of this argument to different output measures and compare our analyses with predictions based on machine learning scaling laws proposed in existing literature. Our quantitative framework facilitates understanding, predicting, and modulating the development of these important technologies.