Italy closes probe into DeepSeek after commitments to warn of AI 'hallucination' risks
A DeepSeek AI sign is seen at a building where the Chinese start-up's office is located in Beijing, China, February 19, 2025. REUTERS/Florence Lo
ROME, Jan 5 : Italy’s antitrust authority has ended an investigation into the Chinese AI system DeepSeek for allegedly failing to warn users that it may produce false information, agreeing to binding commitments as a condition for closing the case.
The Italian regulator, known as the AGCM, which also polices consumer rights, had launched the investigation last June.
The decision was announced in the AGCM's regular weekly bulletin published on Monday.
The commitments proposed by Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence and Beijing DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence, which jointly own and operate DeepSeek, consist of a package of measures aimed at improving disclosures about the risk of 'hallucinations' - situations in which, based on a given input from a user, the AI model generates one or more outputs containing inaccurate, misleading, or fabricated information.
"The commitments presented by DeepSeek make disclosures about the risk of hallucinations easier, more transparent, intelligible, and immediate," the AGCM bulletin said.
(Reporting by Cristina CarlevaroEditing by Claudia Cristoferi and Keith Weir)
