SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence startup, has temporarily suspended the availability of its chatbot applications in South Korea as it collaborates with local authorities to address privacy issues, South Korean officials announced on Monday.

On Saturday evening, South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission reported that DeepSeek’s applications were removed from the local versions of the Apple App Store and Google Play. The company has committed to working alongside the agency to enhance privacy measures before making the apps available again.

This action does not affect users who have already downloaded DeepSeek on their mobile devices or those who access it on personal computers. Nam Seok, the director of the investigation division at the South Korean commission, recommended that users in South Korea delete the app from their devices and refrain from entering personal information into the tool until the concerns are resolved.

DeepSeek gained international attention last month after claiming it developed its popular chatbot at a significantly lower cost compared to those created by American companies. This announcement sparked market upheavals and ignited discussions around the competitive dynamics between the U.S. and China in the field of artificial intelligence development.

In light of security concerns, numerous South Korean government bodies and businesses have blocked DeepSeek from their networks or restricted employees from using the app for professional purposes, fearing the AI platform may be collecting excessive sensitive data.

The South Korean privacy commission, which initiated a review of DeepSeek’s services last month, found that the startup was not transparent about its practices related to third-party data sharing and may have gathered more personal information than necessary, according to Nam.

Nam mentioned that the commission has not yet estimated the number of DeepSeek users in South Korea. However, a recent study by Wiseapp Retail indicated that approximately 1.2 million smartphone users in South Korea utilized DeepSeek during the fourth week of January, making it the second-most-popular AI model following ChatGPT.