Chinese local governments turn to DeepSeek’s AI to identify suspected corruption cases

Chinese regional authorities are using DeepSeek to root out corruption and inefficiency following a call from the central government to embrace the technology.

In one example, the authorities in Suihua, a city in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, said the local disciplinary department had used the AI platform and big data technology to identify suspected welfare benefit fraud.

The local government told the official newspaper Heilongjiang Daily it had “relied on a big data platform to launch an in-depth analysis of information on deaths or protections for old-age and disabled people”.

The authorities said the technology had “greatly improved the precision, efficiency and scientificity of supervision and discipline work” and that “after systematic calculations, 11 suspicious cases were screened out”.

In Zhengzhou, a major city in central China, local officials said DeepSeek had identified potential misconduct in the auction of state-owned enterprises.

“The search found that some companies cross-referenced information on public officials with bidding data, which can accurately identify clues to [corruption] problems,” the officials said.

The central government has urged local authorities to use AI to improve efficiency.