Amid the artificial intelligence upheaval, Chinese startup DeepSeek has inadvertently found itself at the center of attention. Microsoft and OpenAI are jointly investigating suspected unauthorized data access, and the free AI assistant surpassing ChatGPT on the App Store triggers a substantial market reaction, which is truly a mixed blessing. Government officials’ accusations of intellectual property theft against DeepSeek seem to suggest the covetousness of American technology by Chinese companies. And Italian regulators’ demand for DeepSeek to explain their data collection and storage practices within 20 days, one can’t help but wonder if these data are indeed a bit ‘hot’ to handle.