• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, February 14, 2025

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is demanding that Google and Apple provide their analyses of Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek's AI Assistant, a chatbot app, and also turn over whatever material DeepSeek submitted to the companies before being allowed in their app marketplaces.

DeepSeek “appears to be no more than a proxy” for the Chinese government “to undermine American AI dominance and steal the data of our citizens," Paxton stated Friday.

Paxton claimed he believes that DeepSeek's app violates the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act -- a broad privacy bill passed last year.

Paxton didn't elaborate on how the app was allegedly violating Texas's privacy law.

DeepSeek rolled out its artificial intelligence assistant app last month in the U.S. and quickly became one of the most downloaded in the country.

DeepSeek is not the only company Paxton has accused of violating Texas's restrictions on data sharing. 

Last month, Paxton said he was investigating whether 15 companies -- including the social platforms Instagram, Reddit and Discord, as well as chatbot service character.ai -- are violating two Texas statutes, including the Data Privacy and Security Act.

And in October, the Texas official sued TikTok for allegedly sharing minors' personal information with advertisers, search engines and others.

Paxton claimed TikTok was violating the state's social media law, which includes a provision banning social platforms from serving targeted ads to minors under 18. That portion of the law was blocked last week by U.S. District Court Judge Robert Pitman in Austin.