Praised for its ability to match Western competitors at a fraction of the cost, it has surged to the top of app download charts, displacing market leader ChatGPT.

“What our national security agencies will be doing at the moment is having a look at the settings of the app and understanding more about how it works before it issues some formal guidance to Australians.”

Clare O’Neil said she wouldn’t be downloading DeepSeek and would continue to be a “ChatGPT girl” at this stage. Source: AAP / Lukas Coch

Opposition finance spokesperson Jane Hume said the government needed to make any security concerns about the use of DeepSeek public.

“Whatever you may think about it, the future is coming at us, so I think it’s important that we do understand these tools and learn how to use them,” she said.

“I would be very careful about that. These types of issues need to be weighed up carefully.”

“The minute you export it to markets where consumers have different expectations around privacy and data management, the question is whether those products will be embraced in the same way.

Australia’s newly announced chief scientist Tony Haymet had a less cautious tone than Husic, saying DeepSeek’s infiltration showed “how disruptive technology can be and how quickly things can happen”.

DeepSeek has overtaken US competitor ChatGPT to become the top-rated free application on the Apple app store. Source: AAP / Andy Wong

“I view AI as a great opportunity. I think it’s a great export opportunity for Australia, because AI needs electricity, and most of the world is demanding that we deliver AI with renewable electricity, and Australia is perfectly set up for that,” Haymet said at a press conference in Canberra on Tuesday.

“I don’t have a concern that we’re going to be over-regulated. I think we’re going to get it right.”

What is DeepSeek?

The startup says its models are on par with the United States competitors such ChatGPT makers OpenAI and Meta’s most advanced models but are more efficient in their use of the Nvidia processor chips that are used to build and run AI systems.

Some have expressed scepticism about DeepSeek’s resources. On Monday, analysts from Bernstein Research highlighted in a research note that DeepSeek’s total training costs for its V3 model were unknown but were much higher than what the startup said was used for computing power.