Some Western countries have begun reacting cautiously to DeepSeek, a China-based developer of the generative AI model of the same name, out of privacy concerns.

On Thursday, the Italian Data Protection Authority said it has ordered the chatbot developer to limit processing Italian users' data in order to protect their privacy. The agency added that it is also investigating the company after it failed to fully respond to a request for information, including the type of data used to train the system and if the data is stored on servers in China.

Reuters news agency reported that Ireland's Data Protection Commission made a similar request to the firm over the disclosure of data processing in relation to Irish users. The report also said a French privacy watchdog is analyzing how the DeepSeek model works and how data is protected.

Earlier on Tuesday, the US White House press secretary said the National Security Council is reviewing DeepSeek's national security implications.

US news site Axios reported on Thursday that the House of Representatives' Chief Administrative Officer issued a notice saying DeepSeek is now under review and unauthorized for official House use.

Australia's Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic also expressed concern, noting that a lot of questions must be answered on quality, consumer preferences, data and privacy management of the AI tool.