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Messaging rolled out by China state-linked social media

accounts, report shows

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Accounts included those of diplomats, embassies, state

media

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Discussions took place on X, Facebook, Instagram, Weibo ( WB ),

others

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US looking into whether DeepSeek used restricted AI chips,

source says

By Katie Paul and Stephen Nellis

NEW YORK, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Chinese state-linked social

media accounts amplified narratives celebrating the launch of

Chinese startup DeepSeek's AI models last week, days before the

news tanked U.S. tech stocks, according to online analysis firm

Graphika.

The accounts involved in the effort, including those of

Chinese diplomats, embassies and state media, amplified media

coverage of the launch and promoted the idea that DeepSeek

challenged U.S. dominance in the AI sector, New York-based

Graphika said in a report it provided to Reuters on Thursday.

The messaging was rolled out on platforms such as Elon

Musk's X and Meta Platforms' ( META ) Facebook and Instagram, as

well as Chinese services Toutiao and Weibo ( WB ), Graphika said.

"This activity shows how China is able to quickly mobilize a

range of actors that seed and amplify online narratives casting

Beijing as surpassing the U.S. in critical areas of geopolitical

competition, including the race to develop and deploy the most

advanced AI technologies," Graphika Chief Intelligence Officer

Jack Stubbs told Reuters.

"We've consistently seen overt and covert Chinese

state-linked actors among the first movers in leveraging AI to

scale their operations in the information environment."

Graphika said it also found a video featuring pro-China,

anti-Western content on a YouTube channel whose activity

resembled that of Shadow Play, a coordinated influence campaign

involving at least 30 YouTube channels that was first identified

by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in 2023.

YouTube owner Alphabet, Meta, X and the Chinese

embassy in Washington, D.C. did not immediately respond to

requests for comment on the report.

Graphika said it found a small spike in discussion about

DeepSeek's advancements in relation to OpenAI's ChatGPT on X

immediately after DeepSeek released its models on Jan. 20,

followed by a much larger uptick that started on Friday and

continued to build over the weekend.

By Monday, DeepSeek's free AI assistant had overtaken U.S.

rival ChatGPT in downloads from Apple's ( AAPL ) app store and

global investors dumped U.S. tech stocks, wiping $593 billion

off chipmaker Nvidia's ( NVDA ) market value in a record one-day

loss for any company on Wall Street.

Nvidia ( NVDA ) declined to comment on the Graphika report.

DeepSeek's researchers claim to have developed aspects of

their AI model at a far lower cost than U.S. rivals, sparking

worries that U.S. companies that have plowed tens of billions of

dollars into AI data centers could face a price war with China.

Shares of Microsoft ( MSFT ), a major investor in OpenAI

that operates data centers on behalf of the ChatGPT creator,

slid earlier this week when it disclosed slower cloud revenue

growth than Wall Street expected while it continued to plow

billions into capital expenditures.

Microsoft ( MSFT ) and Meta have vowed to continue deep investments

in AI for the foreseeable future.

DeepSeek's rise to prominence was celebrated in China as a

sign that the nation was beating back Washington's attempts to

contain China's tech industry with curbs on technology exports.

In the U.S., DeepSeek's accomplishments sparked accusations

that it had improperly accessed technology from OpenAI and other

leaders, though the allegations remain unproved.

The U.S. Commerce Department is looking into whether

DeepSeek has been using U.S. chips that are not allowed to be

shipped to China, a person familiar with the matter said.