DeepSeek’s A.I. Chatbot Awkwardly Navigates China’s Censors

As the world scrambles to understand DeepSeek — its sophistication, its implications for the global A.I. arms race — one natural question has arisen: Given that it is made by a Chinese company, how is it dealing with Chinese censorship?

I decided to test it out.

I’m based in China, and I registered for DeepSeek’s A.I. chatbot with a Chinese phone number, on a Chinese internet connection — meaning that I would be subject to China’s Great Firewall, which blocks websites like Google,…