US bans China's DeepSeek from government in race for AI dominance

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1. 1

   US bans China's DeepSeek from government in race for AI dominance

   BBC NewsPublished Oct 19, 2026Checked Oct 20, 2026

   “The US has ordered all artificial intelligence (AI) technology from the Chinese firm DeepSeek to be removed from most government systems. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has banned all use of DeepSeek within civilian government agencies, and any technology built with the aid of its AI models. As a powerful AI model that is open source - meaning it is free to access and less expensive to use - DeepSeek has been seen as a disruptive force in the ongoing AI technology race. While the DHS notice did not detail the exact security concerns surrounding DeepSeek, the White House has this year criticised AI firms from China. The DHS, DeepSeek, and the Chinese embassy in Washington DC have been contacted for comment. The DHS made the order public on Monday, but the ban took effect from the end of July. The order is specific to civilian agencies, including the Department of the Treasury, the Department of State and the Department of Justice. However, agencies within the Department of Defense are excluded. The ban follows criticism of Chinese AI from the Trump administration, and from American firms. White House tech lead Michael Kratsios wrote earlier this year in an internal memo that "malicious exploitation" of American AI firms had been occurring, mainly by rival firms in China.”

2. 2

   DeepSeek (AI) (Wikipedia)

   WikipediaChecked Oct 20, 2026

   “DeepSeek is a series of large language models developed by the Chinese company DeepSeek. The series began in November 2023. A model released on 20 January 2025, DeepSeek-R1, became a breakthrough success, surpassing ChatGPT as the most downloaded freeware app on the iOS App Store in the United States by 27 January. DeepSeek's success against larger and more established rivals has been described as "upending AI" and initiating "a global AI space race". DeepSeek's compliance with Chinese government censorship policies and its data collection practices have also raised concerns over privacy and information control in the model, prompting regulatory scrutiny in multiple countries. However, it has also been praised for its open weights and infrastructure code, energy efficiency and contributions to open-source artificial intelligence.”

3. 3

   Political censorship in large language models originating from China.

   PNAS nexus (Pan & Xu)Published Feb 17, 2026Checked Oct 20, 2026

   “This article focuses on a different source of bias in LLMs-government censorship. By comparing foundation models developed in China and those from outside China, we find substantially higher rates of refusal to respond, shorter responses, and inaccurate responses to a battery of 145 political questions in China-originating models. These disparities diminish for less-sensitive prompts, showing that technological and market differences cannot fully explain this divergence. While all models exhibit higher refusal to respond rates with Chinese-language prompts than English ones, language differences are less pronounced than disparities between China-originating and non-China-originating models. We caution that our study is observational and cross-sectional and does not establish a causal linkage between regulatory pressures and censorship behaviors of China-originating LLMs, but these results suggest that censorship through government regulation requiring companies to restrict political content may be an important factor contributing to political bias in LLMs.”

4. 4

   DeepSeek (Wikipedia)

   WikipediaChecked Oct 20, 2026

   “Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Basic Technology Research Co., Ltd., doing business as DeepSeek, is a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company that develops open weights large language models (LLMs). Based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, DeepSeek is owned and funded by High-Flyer, a Chinese hedge fund.”

5. 5

   From brain drain to geopolitical talent competition: scientific diasporas and the future of Global South development.

   Frontiers in research metrics and analytics (Buyuktanir & Tapia)Published Sep 16, 2026Checked Oct 20, 2026

   “ies should move beyond traditional "brain drain" narratives and instead adopt long-term strategies that view scientific diasporas as transnational development partners and components of broader "networks of networks." Drawing on literature related to scientific diasporas, global talent competition, science diplomacy, and migration studies, this review analyzes how scientific diasporas contribute to development through knowledge transfer, institutional partnerships, capacity building, innovation ecosystems, and policy engagement. It also examines the implications of recent geopolitical shifts, including the growing global competition for talent, technological nationalism, changes in U.S. science and immigration environments, Europe's strategic talent policies, and the rise of emerging scientific hubs beyond the West. Particular attention is given to the Global South, South-South cooperation, reverse brain drain, and the importance of equitable and inclusive knowledge systems. The paper concludes with policy recommendations aimed at strengthening science, technology, and innovation ecosystems and integrating scientific diasporas into national and international development strategies.”