US Bans DeepSeek AI From Federal Systems as Tech Giants Jostle for AI Dominance

Oct 20 – The United States government has ordered federal civilian agencies to remove China's DeepSeek artificial intelligence products from their systems, citing national security concerns, as a wave of major technology developments reshapes the global AI and computing landscape.

The directive, reported by both TechCrunch and BBC News - Technology, targets DeepSeek products as well as third-party services built using the Chinese AI model's technology. BBC News - Technology described DeepSeek as a powerful, popular and relatively inexpensive artificial intelligence model. The ban underscores deepening technology tensions between Washington and Beijing, with the US government moving to limit the reach of Chinese-developed AI tools within its own infrastructure.

The DeepSeek ban comes as competition among AI companies intensifies on multiple fronts. According to TechCrunch, Amazon has introduced a new developer tool called TorchNeuron, aimed at breaking Nvidia's hold on PyTorch, the widely used free toolkit that underpins most AI applications. Amazon's goal, TechCrunch reported, is to encourage developers to run their applications on alternative chips, including Amazon's own, rather than relying on Nvidia's dominant hardware. Separately, TechCrunch reported that AI company Anthropic is in talks with compute provider Nscale for a reported $45 billion compute deal, which would be the latest in a series of large-scale infrastructure agreements Anthropic has struck over the past year.

Beyond AI, several other significant technology stories emerged. The UK's competition regulator has asked Apple to widen access to its payment technology, according to BBC News - Technology, with proposed changes that could enable new digital wallets, digital keys and ticketing applications. In the consumer technology space, TechCrunch reported that Yelp is embedding new AI features into its app, including the ability to call restaurants on a user's behalf to check wait times and to generate personalized recommendations based on user preferences. AI companion app Tolan also announced a $30 million funding round after attracting more than 250,000 active users, TechCrunch reported. On the open-source software front, Ars Technica reported that ReactOS reached a significant milestone by gaining support for installing on NTFS file systems through a new driver.

In science and energy, Ars Technica reported that a startup conducted a proof-of-concept test tapping an underwater volcano as an energy source, raising questions about whether undersea geothermal power could help Pacific Rim nations reduce dependence on oil imports. Japan also launched a mission aimed at retrieving a sample from Phobos, one of Mars's moons, according to Ars Technica, with the spacecraft expected to attempt up to two landings on Phobos in 2029.

Taken together, the developments reflect a technology sector defined by intensifying geopolitical rivalry over AI, a race among cloud and chip providers to challenge established players, and growing regulatory scrutiny of major technology companies on both sides of the Atlantic.