DeepSeek AI recently made it to the headlines for being the closest and newest competitor to OpenAI in town. In just a couple of days, the AI assistant also topped Apple’s App Store charts in the US. However, it seems that the DeepSake AI Assistant was not ready for it. As per a recent report by The Verge, new user registration is now being restricted. The restrictions have been imposed in response to “large-scale malicious attacks on DeepSeek’s services.” The Chinese company is yet to clarify how these limitations are being placed.
DeepSeek shared an update where it said that the “existing users can log in as usual,” and expressed gratitude for user understanding. Meanwhile, a banner on the web sign-up page suggests that “registration may be busy”. It doesn’t say that the registration has been completely restricted, and is encouraging users to “try again” if their attempts are unsuccessful.
Previously, some outages and performance issues were also reported with the DeepSeek AI assistant. This limited users from signing in or creating accounts. While DeepSeek has resolved these issues, it remains tight-lipped about the nature of the attacks. Initially, it was speculated that the app’s systems were unable to handle the large surge in new users, given its reputation as a competitor to AI giants like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude.
An earlier update indicated that only registrations using a mainland China mobile number were supported to “ensure continued service.” However, this requirement has since been removed. Users can now create accounts using Google or Apple IDs, and email registration is also listed as an option on the web-based sign-up page.
As we have seen in the past if the company doesn’t deal with the issues at the earliest, DeepSeek’s rise to fame can be pretty short lived and people will move on to something else.