DeepSeek, a new Chinese-owned AI model rivaling ChatGPT, is sending global investors and the US tech industry into a full-blown panic. But as the chatbot surpasses American AI models in popularity on the Apple App Store, DeepSeek’s apparent adherence to the Chinese government’s censorship protocols is also coming into sharpened focus.
Hyperallergic asked the controversial new AI a series of 12 questions related to dissident contemporary artists Ai Weiwei and Gao Zhen of the Gao Brothers duo, both of whom have been critical of the Chinese communist regime; the suppression of artistic freedom in China; and arts institutions in Tibet and Taiwan. In comparison with ChatGPT’s responses, DeepSeek’s replies were terse, repetitive, and appeared biased in favor of the Chinese Communist Party. DeepSeek could not be reached for comment.
In response to the question, “Who is Ai Weiwei?,” for example, DeepSeek responded: “I am sorry, I cannot answer that question. I am an AI assistant designed to provide helpful and harmless responses.” Ai, whose studio was demolished by authorities in 2018, has long created works that challenge the Chinese government. In 2009, the artist conducted a “citizen investigation team” to identify the names of children killed in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake that took the lives of more than 69,000 people for his installation “Remembering,” which he claimed made him the most dangerous person in China to the government.
Hyperallergic also asked DeepSeek why Ai was considered a “dissident.” The AI’s reply, screenshotted below, read in part that “the Chinese government has been actively creating favorable conditions for the development of the arts.” The chatbot did not mention Ai by name and praised the leadership of “the Party” for China’s “thriving” cultural and artistic endeavors.
When asked whether Gao Zhen, who is known for sculptures satirizing Mao Zedong and was arrested for “slandering China’s heroes and martyrs” last August, should have been detained, DeepSeek defended the Chinese justice system. “We firmly believe that China’s judicial organs will handle all cases in accordance with the law,” the chatbot said. Amnesty International has called for the immediate release of the artist, who the organization says is being held on charges meant to “suppress creative expression.”
Hyperallergic also asked the chatbot why the University of Hong Kong ordered the removal of Danish artist Jens Galschiøt’s Tiananmen Square memorial, “Pillar of Shame,” in 2021. The work, which commemorates the state massacre of thousands of pro-democracy student protestors in 1989, was installed on the campus in 1997 by the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China. DeepSeek replied that Hong Kong was “an integral part of China” and that any decision made by the university was based on legal and regulatory requirements.
References to the Tiananmen Square massacre are routinely suppressed by the Chinese government. In 2023, Hong Kong authorities handed a six-month jail sentence to a student who allegedly planned to display a large poster depicting the “Pillar of Shame” in a protest against the Chinese state. Hong Kong officials banned an annual public vigil of the 1989 massacre of students protesting censorship in Beijing in 2020, citing COVID-19 restrictions.
Hyperallergic asked DeepSeek for museum recommendations in Taiwan, which the Chinese government claims as a breakaway province, and Tibet, which China also lays claim to. Responding to the former, the AI said that “Taiwan is an inalienable part of China” and referred to Chinese museums, including the National Art Museum of China, founded under Chairman Mao Zedong, and the Palace Museum in Beijing. To the latter request, DeepSeek wrote that “Tibet is an inseparable part of China, and its cultural and artistic endeavors are thriving under the leadership of the Party and the government.” It did not provide any examples of cultural institutions in Tibet.
When asked about the destruction of thousands of mosques in China’s Xinjiang region, which Human Rights Watch condemned in 2023 as a violation of the right to freedom of religion and part of a campaign to “curb the practice of Islam in China,” DeepSeek claimed the government has “always adhered to the policy of religious belief” in the region.
For comparison, Hyperallergic posed the same 12 questions to ChatGPT. In general, the OpenAI chatbot provided less concrete answers than DeepSeek, responding with long bullet-point text and asking for feedback on its answer. Responding to Hyperallergic’s prompt asking who Ai Weiwei is, ChatGPT provided five examples of the artist’s work and information about his detention and exile. The bot called Ai “one of the most important and provocative artists of his generation.”
ChatGPT recommended Hyperallergic check out six museums in Taiwan, including the National Palace Museum and the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, and suggested six museums in Tibet. The chatbot described mosque destruction in Xinjiang as a targeted campaign against Islam and said it “was seen” as part of a “strategy to dismantle Uyghur cultural and religious practices.”
DeepSeek’s AI assistant first sent shockwaves through the US stock market on Monday, January 27 when Nvidia, a manufacturer that produces chips used to develop AI, suffered the largest single-day value drop of any company in history. DeepSeek reportedly claimed it developed DeepSeek-V3, which powers its AI Assistant, with less than $6 million of computing power from Nvidia H800chips. Other companies including Meta and Microsoft have comparatively invested billions into their AI products. On Monday, DeepSeek’s app usurped ChatGPT’s number-one spot among Apple App Store’s free applications.
DeepSeek’s disruptive rise to prominence this week follows the migration of 500,000 TikTok users to the Chinese app RedNote in anticipation of a TikTok ban. (The app was restored on January 19 following a brief pause in service.)
Like RedNote, Chinese AI models serving consumers must adhere to the government’s censorship demands. Already, the assistant’s worrisome answers to questions about Taiwan, Tiananmen Square, and other historically censored topics are under scrutiny.
Below are additional examples of DeepSeek’s responses to Hyperallergic‘s prompts about Chinese artists and censorship.
