**Huawei Co-Develops Safety-Focused DeepSeek Model to Block Politically Sensitive Topics**

*By Akash Pandey | Sep 19, 2025, 06:45 PM*

Huawei, the Chinese tech giant, has announced the co-development of a modified version of the artificial intelligence (AI) model DeepSeek. The new variant, named **DeepSeek-R1-Safe**, is reported to be “nearly 100% successful” in censoring politically sensitive topics, aligning with China’s stringent regulations that require domestic AI models and applications to uphold “socialist values.”

### Training and Development

Huawei trained DeepSeek-R1-Safe using 1,000 of its own Ascend AI chips. The model is adapted from DeepSeek’s open-source R1 version and developed in collaboration with Zhejiang University, which is the alma mater of DeepSeek’s founder, Liang Wenfeng. However, neither DeepSeek nor Liang Wenfeng were directly involved in this latest project.

### AI and Political Sensitivity in China

Chinese AI chatbots, such as Baidu’s Ernie Bot—China’s counterpart to OpenAI’s ChatGPT—commonly avoid discussing domestic politics or sensitive topics. These limitations reflect the ruling Communist Party’s guidelines, aiming to control and manage online discourse.

### Model Efficiency and Performance

Huawei reports that DeepSeek-R1-Safe achieves an impressive success rate of nearly 100% in defending against “common harmful issues.” These issues include toxic speech, politically sensitive content, and incitement to illegal activities.

However, the model’s effectiveness drops to 40% when confronted with disguised behaviors such as scenario-based challenges, role-playing scenarios, or encrypted coding.

In comprehensive testing, DeepSeek-R1-Safe’s security defense capability reached 83%, outperforming several contemporary AI models—including Qwen-235B and DeepSeek-R1-671B—by 8% to 15% under identical conditions. Despite the enhanced safety features, the new model exhibited less than a 1% performance degradation compared to its predecessor, DeepSeek-R1.

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Huawei’s development of DeepSeek-R1-Safe underscores the growing emphasis on AI safety and regulatory compliance in China’s technology sector, reflecting broader governmental priorities around information control and socialist values adherence.
https://www.newsbytesapp.com/news/science/huawei-unveils-ai-model-deepseek-r1-safe-to-filter-politically-sensitive-content/story