China appears to believe its AI startup Deepseek could become a prominent technological success story for the country.
According to the information, the company is currently operating under new government-influenced restrictions after suddenly gaining fame in January with the release of R1, a public “inference” model of the open “inference” model. According to the information, some of the company's employees are freely blocked from traveling abroad, and the Chinese government is currently playing a role in screening potential investors.
Deepseek implements travel restrictions by keeping the passports of certain staff members, the parent company, HighFlyer, a quantitative hedge fund.
The development comes weeks after it was reported that the Chinese government is instructing AI researchers and entrepreneurs to avoid travelling to the US, fearing the loss of trade secrets.
TechCrunch reached out to Deepseek for comment.