
The Department of Information and Communications Technology and Department of Science and Technology are urging tech savvy Filipinos and netizens to be wary of engaging with artificial intelligence chatbots, following the disruption caused by a Chinese AI startup.
DICT Secretary Ivan John Uy said that people should be “more discerning” in engaging with AI chatbots, regardless of who developed it, especially with the details the machines disclose. “As you make your queries, as you engage with AI, you will be sharing information, you will be sharing data. So you have to be careful as to what extent (of your personal data) you want to share,” he said at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay breakfast forum in Manila last week.
The arrival of DeepSeek-Ra caused a one-day crash in the US tech market, with graphics processing unit and microchip giant Nvidia the most hit, along with other companies, such as Broadcom, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon.
“DeepSeek is disruptive and game changing because it shattered the preconceived notion that one needs huge amounts of GPUs and hundreds of millions of dollars to develop AI,” Uy said.
The ICT secretary stressed that any generative AI bot or platform needs data to attain high intelligence levels.
Meanwhile, a well-informed source at the DOST said that initial evaluation of DeepSeek-R1 has shown an apparent geopolitical bias toward China. They have apparently detected limitations on its AI that prevents it from answering certain queries about Chinese leader Xi Jinping and the West Philippine Sea. Those early findings raise the need for further evaluation of DeepSeek not just in terms of its capabilities, but also on security.
There is always the temptation to try out the capabilities of the next big thing in technology, thinking that it is harmless play. However, it may be time to consider that instead of us playing around with these new developments, we may be the ones being played, this time by AI. Taking care when engaging with these chatbots, especially when personal data is involved, should be on top of our minds, especially if we don’t want to be outsmarted by machines and the vested interests that created them.*