Deepseek AI says ‘large-scale, malicious’ cyberattack is limiting registration [Video]

DeepSeek AI, the hottest name in generative AI right now, says it’s weathering “large-scale malicious attacks” after becoming the most-downloaded app on Apple’s App Store, overtaking OpenAI’s ChatGPT in the process.

The China-based AI startup has experienced explosive growth over the past week, drawing comparisons to the viral launch of ChatGPT itself. DeepSeek AI’s open-source large language model (LLM), DeepSeek R1, claims to boast performance that rivals its Western competitors — allegedly at half the cost and with significantly less computing power, too.

A massive migration of users to DeepSeek’s platform, available as a free web app and on iOS and Android, has strained its infrastructure. Alleged cyberattacks have only added to the strain, forcing the company to temporarily limit new registrations, as noted on its status page.

DeepSeek has not elaborated on the nature or scale of the attacks and did not immediately respond to Mashable’s request for comment.