Will DeepSeek impact legal tech development? Maybe, as one article discusses. But I think there is a major concerns to be addressed first.

The article on Legaltech^® News (DeepSeek Isn’t Yet Impacting Legal Tech Development. But That Could Soon Change, written by Benjamin Joyner and available here) discusses how there are questions on whether and how American and European enterprise users, such as legal tech companies and law firms, will make use of DeepSeek’s R1 in building specific tools.

Experts suggest that enterprise users are unlikely to use DeepSeek itself for the time being given legal risks, and the incorporation of its open-source models will require some testing and experimentation. However, in the long run, the creation of cheaper large language models (LLMs) is likely to have a transformative impact on developers in the legal tech space.

The author goes on to discuss some short-term roadblocks, such as the lack of an enterprise version with a closed system of its online platform. But, my friend Tom O’Connor pointed out to me, the big roadblock is that: “Personal data is stored in the People’s Republic of China, while the company reserves sweeping rights to use both customer inputs and outputs, and does not indemnify customers for copyright infringement.”

That includes (per Tom, privacy policy here):

• “IP address, unique device identifiers, and cookies”
• “date of birth (where applicable), username, email address and/or telephone number, and password”
• “your text or audio input, prompt, uploaded files, feedback, chat history, or other content that you provide to our model and Services”
• “proof of identity or age, feedback or inquiries about your use of the Service,” if you contact DeepSeek

Unless that changes, I don’t consider that a “short-term roadblock”, I consider that a deal breaker.

So, what do you think? Will DeepSeek impact legal tech development? If so, when? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

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