Italy's data protection authority said on Thursday it had blocked Chinese artificial intelligence model DeepSeek over a lack of information on its use of personal data.

Italy’s data protection authority has blocked use of Chinese tech startup DeepSeek’s AI application to protect Italians’ data and announced an investigation into the companies behind the chatbot

China's DeepSeek AI has already caught the eye of the Italian Data Protection Authority, shortly after it went viral and became the top-rated free app on Apple's App Store in the US and other regions.

Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella had some kind words for DeepSeek, the Chinese artificial intelligence startup that roiled his company’s shares earlier this week.

Microsoft MSFT.O has made Chinese startup DeepSeek's R1 artificial intelligence model available on its Azure cloud computing platform and GitHub tool for developers, the U.S. company said on Wednesday.

Microsoft confirmed it will bring the DeepSeek R1 model to Azure cloud and GitHub in a move that it hopes will lessen its reliance on OpenAI's models. The Latest Tech News, Delivered to Your Inbox