Italy regulator probes DeepSeek over false information risks

Italy's antitrust watchdog AGCM said it had opened an investigation into Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek for allegedly failing to warn users that it may produce false information.

DeepSeek did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

The Italian regulator, which also polices consumer rights, said in a statement DeepSeek did not give users "sufficiently clear, immediate and intelligible" warnings about the risk of so-called "hallucinations" in its AI-produced content.

It described these as "situations in which, in response to a given input entered by a user, the AI ​​model generates one or more outputs containing inaccurate, misleading or invented information."

In February, another Italian watchdog, the data protection authority, ordered DeepSeek to block access to its chatbot after it failed to address its concerns about its privacy policy.