U.S. bans AI startup DeepSeek because of ‘threat vectors’ and China responds

China hit back Tuesday at a U.S. ban on Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek’s products for federal civilian agencies , highlighting friction in the two AI powers’ heated technology race . The agencies should remove DeepSeek and its affiliated products, as well as third party products and services developed using DeepSeek , from their IT systems, the Department of Homeland Security said in a notice made public on Monday.