WASHINGTON, Jan 29 (Reuters) - New York-based

cybersecurity firm Wiz says it has found a trove of sensitive

data from the Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek

inadvertently exposed to the open internet.

In a blog post published Wednesday, Wiz said that scans of

DeepSeek's infrastructure showed that the company had

accidentally left more than a million lines of data available

unsecured. Those included digital software keys and chat logs

that appeared to capture prompts being sent from users to the

company's free AI assistant.

Wiz's chief technology officer said DeepSeek quickly secured

the data after his firm alerted them.

"They took it down in less than an hour," Ami Luttwak said.

"But this was so simple to find we believe we're not the only

ones who found it."

DeepSeek did not immediately return a message seeking

comment.

DeepSeek's practically overnight success following the

launch of its AI assistant has thrilled China and sparked

anxiety in America. The Chinese company's apparent ability to

match OpenAI's capabilities at a much lower cost has posed

questions over the sustainability of the business models and

profit margins of U.S. AI giants such as Nvidia ( NVDA ) and

Microsoft ( MSFT ).

By Monday, it had overtaken U.S. rival ChatGPT in downloads

from Apple's App Store, triggering a global selloff in tech

shares.