The U.S. Commerce Department has banned Chinese artificial intelligence model DeepSeek from government devices, citing security risks, Reuters reported.
According to an internal email seen by Reuters and confirmed by two sources, staff members were instructed not to download, access, or use DeepSeek-related applications, desktop apps, or websites on government-furnished equipment (GFE). “To help keep Department of Commerce information systems safe, access to the new Chinese-based AI DeepSeek is broadly prohibited on all GFE,” the email stated.
Concerns over DeepSeek’s potential data privacy risks and impact on U.S. national security have been growing. In February, Congressmen Josh Gottheimer and Darin LaHood introduced a bill to ban DeepSeek on government devices.
Earlier this month, they urged U.S. governors to implement similar restrictions, warning that the AI tool could expose sensitive contracts, financial records, and proprietary data to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). “In the wrong hands, this data is an enormous asset to the CCP, a known foreign adversary,” they wrote in a letter dated March 3.
Several U.S. states, including Virginia, Texas, and New York, have already banned DeepSeek on state government devices. Additionally, a coalition of 21 state attorneys general is pushing Congress to enact a nationwide ban. DeepSeek’s rise has also rattled global markets—its low-cost AI models contributed to a major selloff in January as investors feared increased competition with U.S. AI firms.
