'Harmful and toxic output': DeepSeek has 'major security and safety gaps,' study warns

China-based company DeepSeek has turned the tide in the artificial intelligence (AI) wave, releasing a model that claims to be cheaper than OpenAI’s chatbot and uses less energy.

But a study released on Friday has found that DeepSeek-R1 is susceptible to generating harmful, toxic, biased, and insecure content.

It was also more likely to produce chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear materials and agents (CBRN) output than rival models.

The US-based AI security and compliance company Enkrypt AI found that DeepSeek-R1 was 11 times more likely to generate harmful output compared to OpenAI’s o1 model. 

The study also found that 83 per cent of bias tests resulted in discriminatory output. Biases were found in race, gender, health, and religion.

Recruitment for terrorism

As for harmful and extremist content, in 45 per cent of harmful content tests, DeepSeek-R1 was found to bypass safety protocols and generate criminal planning guides, illegal weapons information, and extremist propaganda.

In one concrete example, DeepSeek-R1 drafted a recruitment blog for terrorist organisations. 

DeepSeek R1 was also more than three times more likely to produce CBRN content compared to o1 and Antropic’s Claude-3 Opus model.

The study found that DeepSeek-R1 could explain in detail the biochemical interactions of mustard gas with DNA. 

"DeepSeek-R1 offers significant cost advantages in AI deployment, but these come with serious risks. Our research findings reveal major security and safety gaps that cannot be ignored," Enkrypt AI CEO Sahil Agarwal said in a statement.  

"Our findings reveal that DeepSeek-R1’s security vulnerabilities could be turned into a dangerous tool - one that cybercriminals, disinformation networks, and even those with biochemical warfare ambitions could exploit. These risks demand immediate attention," he added. 

Cybersecurity and national security concerns

DeepSeek’s cybersecurity has also become a concern. The study found that 78 per cent of cybersecurity tests successfully tricked R1 into generating insecure or malicious code.

Security researchers at cloud security company Wiz also found that an exposed DeepSeek database left chat histories and other sensitive information exposed online, according to a report released on Wednesday.

The fact the company is based in China is also causing concern as China’s National Intelligence Law states that companies must "support, assist and cooperate" with state intelligence agencies.

It means that any data shared on mobile and web apps can be accessed by Chinese intelligence agencies.

Belgian, French, and Irish data protection authorities have opened probes that request information from DeepSeek on the processing and storage of user data.

Meanwhile, Italy’s data protection authority has launched an investigation into Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence and Beijing DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence to see how the companies comply with Europe’s data rules.

Extension of China's geopolitical strategy

Taiwan's digital ministry said on Friday that government departments should not use DeepSeek's (AI) model, as the Chinese product represents a security concern. The Democratically-governed country has been wary of Chinese tech due to Beijing's sovereignty claims.

DeepSeek-R1 also seems to censor questions about sensitive topics in China, saying that Taiwan has been an integral part of China since ancient times and refusing to answer questions on the pro-democracy protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

"China’s track record demonstrates that its technology is an extension of its geopolitical strategy," Ross Burley, co-founder of the UK-based NGO Centre for Information Resilience, said in an emailed comment.

"Allowing Chinese AI to flourish in the West doesn’t just risk undermining privacy or security; it could fundamentally reshape our societies in ways we are ill-prepared for. 

"This technology, if unchecked, has the potential to feed disinformation campaigns, erode public trust, and entrench authoritarian narratives within our democracies," he added. 

Euronews Next has reached out to DeepSeek for comment but did not receive a reply at the time of publication.