While DeepSeek remains blocked on Italian app stores, a VPN should help bypass the block couples with some extra workarounds. Experts, however, aren't advising it.

Chinese AI lab DeepSeek's Android app has taken the No. 1 spot on the Google Play Store, days after the chatbot app clinched the top spot on the App Store.

China just threw a curveball into the tough Artificial Intelligence (AI) race as DeepSeek’s chatbot app just skyrocketed to the number 1 spot on both the Google Play Store and Apple App Store in the United States.

DeepSeek’s AI breakthrough challenges Big Tech with a cheaper, efficient model. This may be bad for the incumbents, but good for everybody else.

The start-up had become a key player in the “Chinese Large-Model Technology Avengers Team” that would counter US AI dominance, said another. China’s delight, however, spelled pain for several giant US technology companies as investors questioned whether DeepSeek’s breakthrough undermined the case for their colossal spending on AI infrastructure.