Texas AG Ken Paxton investigates Chinese AI firm DeepSeek over privacy and security concerns
AUSTIN – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has launched an investigation into DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence company that his office says is connected to the Chinese Communist Party.
According to Paxton's office, the probe will scrutinize the company's data privacy practices and assertions that its AI model is on par with sophisticated models like OpenAI's Model o1.
DeepSeek has been notified that its platform violates the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act, the attorney general's office said in a news release.
Paxton expressed concerns that DeepSeek is a proxy for the Chinese Communist Party to undermine American AI dominance and steal data.
"The United States and Texas will continue to be at the forefront of global AI innovation, and any CCP (Chinese Communist Party)-aligned company that tries to undermine that dominance by violating the rights of Texans and illegally undercutting American technology companies will face the full force of the law," Paxton said in the release.
Paxton has called on Google and Apple to provide all relevant documents related to the DeepSeek app.
In late January, Paxton directed that DeepSeek's platform be banned on all attorney general's office devices due to security concerns and the company's connections to the Chinese Communist Party.
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Business Insider
27 minutes ago
- Business Insider
American tourists can't quite quit Europe
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Those traveling internationally were also more likely to increase their travel budget compared to last year. Shim, the copywriter from Denver, also has a special reason for making her Portugal trip work this year, despite her financial concerns. Her family has been going through a tough time after her grandfather's death last year. This vacation is a way to spend quality time with and treat her mom, who has never been to Europe, and take the first trip that's just the two of them. "I also think that sometimes in these times of uncertainty and tumultuousness and a lot of tension and division, traveling and spending quality time with family who loves you is a great way to just take care of your mental and emotional health too," she said, "which I think is also very important to do."
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
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OpenAI chairman's career advice? Remember what Eric Schmidt told Sheryl Sandberg about joining Google.
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USA Today
32 minutes ago
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Maybe it's a good time to take all those coins gathering dust in a cup or piggy bank to the bank or a Coinstar machine. The average home has $60-$90 in coins at home, according to the Federal Reserve. Are your old pennies worth millions?: Experts say you shouldn't bank on it Getting rid of pennies. Will it save the US money? Maybe. Not making pennies will nix out the more than $179 million it costs taxpayers to make them, based on figures from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the department formerly connected to Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. The U.S. Mint estimates that not making pennies will save $56 million in material costs, with additional savings from better and more efficient production, CNBC reported. 'For every penny that the United States government prints, we're actually losing money. So, it's a net cost to the federal government,' said Raymond Robertson, director of the Mosbacher Institute for Trade, Economics and Public Policy at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, in a news release. But the lack of pennies likely means more reliance on nickels, which cost even more to produce – 13.78 cents, the U.S. Mint says. If the U.S. Mint makes more nickels, "It actually is going to increase costs for the government,' Robertson said. 'So, it's really not clear how much cost savings the government will realize by eliminating the penny," he added. One of the bills (H.R. 1270) introduced in the House of Representatives (technically, Congress holds the power to eliminate a currency) also proposes getting rid of the nickel, too. What will the demise of the penny mean to prices? There is no time frame for prices to be set in five-cent increments – a move to change all those prices ending in 49 or 99 cents to the nearest five cents due to lack of pennies – but they will likely eventually, said Bill Maurer, dean of the School of Social Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, and director of UCI's Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion. When there are not enough pennies for stores and other retailers to make change, businesses will need to round up or down, the Treasury Department said, according to The Wall Street Journal. For the time being, merchants can keep prices as they are, but the 18% to 20% of Americans who rely on cash could eventually pay a rounded-up price, based on 5-cent increments. "If someone comes to you with cash, you round up, right? So if you're kind of doubly screwed if you're poorer," Maurer told USA TODAY. Other countries that have eliminated low-denomination coins – Australia, Canada and New Zealand, among them – have resulted in differing outcomes, with some prices rounding up and some down, according to As the move to eliminate coin and paper currency continues, a publicly-accessible digital payment system will be needed so that consumers of all income levels can participate, Maurer said. But the loss of physical currency removes a redundancy in the monetary system that's invaluable during disasters and emergencies, according to Maurer. "The more dependent on cashless methods of payment we become, the more risk we place ourselves when there are emergencies or disasters, because you need a well-functioning cash system," he continued. Contributing: Fernando Cervantes, Daniel de Visé and Melina Khan. Mike Snider is a reporter on USA TODAY's Trending team. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, X and email him at mikegsnider & @ & @mikesnider & msnider@ What's everyone talking about? 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