ARM CEO Predicts Potential Ban on DeepSeek AI in the US, Citing Security Concerns

Arm CEO Rene Haas makes grim prediction that DeepSeek will be "shut down"

Haas thinks DeepSeek could suffer the same scrutiny as TikTok (Image credit: Getty Images) DeepSeek might be the buzziest ChatGPT rival out there right now, but according to Arm CEO Rene Haas, it may already be headed for trouble. In an interview with the Financial Times, Haas shared his predictions on China's overnight ChatGPT competitor, which has exploded in popularity over the past several weeks since its launch in December 2024. His outlook? Grim to say the least. In a February 10 interview with the Financial Times, Arm CEO Rene Haas weighed in on the controversial new AI model DeepSeek R1 and its shake-up of the AI industry. While U.S. users seem intrigued by DeepSeek after its app launch in December 2024 (it already has over 6,000 ratings on the App Store), Haas seemed skeptical about DeepSeek's future. Haas predicts DeepSeek will "get shut down," most likely due to foreign policy, since DeepSeek, like TikTok, is a Chinese company. Haas commented in the interview, "Think about it . . . if you're not going to allow a TikTok, why would you allow this?" Haas stressed, however, that this was only a prediction and he wasn't "operating on any knowledge." A potential ban on the DeepSeek app in the U.S. doesn't seem far-fetched given existing tensions between the U.S. and China in the tech sector and DeepSeek's worrying shake-up to current industry giants. California-based Nvidia, which manufactures the world's leading AI chips, lost a record-breaking $593 billion in market value in a single day as a result of DeepSeek R1's launch. DeepSeek claims its open-source AI model can deliver similar performance to U.S. rivals like ChatGPT at a much lower cost, which led investors to doubt future demand for Nvidia's powerful AI chips. On top of market woes, DeepSeek is also raising similar concerns around privacy like those TikTok has been grappling with for years. Just as those privacy concerns have led to multiple near-bans for TikTok, they could also lead to a ban on DeepSeek for U.S. users, which seems to be what Arm CEO Rene Haas is predicting. Right now it's too soon to say whether or not DeepSeek will be banned. However, a ban might only impact the official DeepSeek app rather than the model as a whole. Since DeepSeek is open-source, anyone can access, modify, and validate its code, or even use it in their own products. So, another company, like a U.S.-based tech developer, could make their own AI app that uses their own version of DeepSeek, which might not be affected by a ban. We'll be covering all the latest updates on DeepSeek and its controversial rise in the AI industry, so stay tuned for more info.

DeepSeek will be banned in the US, believes ARM CEO - 9to5Mac

Apple Silicon chips have transformed attitudes toward ARM architecture, from being suitable mostly for power-efficient mobile devices to also capable of powering desktop processors which Intel behind. ARM CEO Rene Haas has now weighed-in on the DeepSeek controversy in a new interview, expressing his skepticism about one of of the key claims and voicing his expectation that China's AI chatbot will be banned in the US ... DeepSeek caused shockwaves in AI circles when the company posted benchmarks indicating that its performance was comparable to the world's best existing models. Experts quickly verified the claims, with concerns raised that China was seemingly able to achieve this at a fraction of the development cost of US models. That created the possibility that US AI companies could be significantly over-valued, and soon face a lot more competition. It was this fear which saw the stock prices of tech giants fall - with Apple a notable exception. Key to concerns was China's claim to have developed its model with a fraction of the computing power of US models like ChatGPT, claiming that software optimisation compensated for much cheaper hardware. But Hass told the Financial Times that he doubts this claim. He says he does not believe "the rumours" that "they did this on a shoestring budget . . . I think that's where people just over-indexed on 'maybe the world's coming to an end'." He argued that if it were true, we'd have seen US AI companies announce that they were cutting their capital expenditure plans to take advantage of this more efficient approach. So far at least, that hasn't happened. Haas also thinks DeepSeek will be banned in the US, while emphasizing that he doesn't have any inside knowledge on this, but is simply drawing what he believes to be a logical conclusion. He does not predict a rosy future for DeepSeek, saying he thinks it will "get shut down". Washington is "scrambling on what to do with this thing. Think about it . . . if you're not going to allow a TikTok, why would you allow this?" We've already seen privacy and national security concerns raised, with multiple security flaws found in the iOS app. Haas went on to say that the company plans in future to sell its own chips, rather than just selling licenses to use the architecture, and that he believes AI holds the potential to revolutionize medical research.