According to a message reviewed by Reuters and two people familiar with the situation, U.S. Commerce department bureaus told employees in recent weeks that the Chinese artificial intelligence model DeepSeek is prohibited on their federal computers.
One mass email to employees on their government-furnished equipment stated, “Access to the new Chinese based AI DeepSeek is broadly prohibited on all GFE to help keep Department of Commerce information systems safe.”
“Avoid downloading, viewing, or accessing any DeepSeek-related desktop apps or websites.”
A request for comment was not immediately answered by the Commerce department.
The scope of the prohibition across the U.S. government was not immediately apparent to Reuters.
Investors were concerned about the danger to the US leadership in AI, which led to a significant selloff in global equities markets in January because to DeepSeek’s inexpensive AI models.
Congressmen and U.S. officials have voiced worries about DeepSeek’s potential to compromise critical government data and data privacy.
Members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Congressmen Josh Gottheimer and Darin LaHood, submitted legislation in February to prohibit DeepSeek on government computers. They urged U.S. governors in letters earlier this month to forbid the Chinese AI app from being used on government-issued devices.
In a letter dated March 3, the lawmakers referred to the Chinese Communist Party and stated that “users are unknowingly sharing highly sensitive, proprietary information with the CCP — such as contracts, documents, and financial records” by using DeepSeek. “This data is a huge asset to the CCP, a known foreign adversary, in the wrong hands.”
