Australia has banned the use of DeepSeek on all government devices to stop the “unacceptable security risks” posed by China’s groundbreaking artificial intelligence program, according to an official order on Tuesday (February 4).
The DeepSeek chatbot, developed by a Chinese technology startup, shocked industry insiders and disrupted financial markets since its release last month.
Countries such as South Korea, Italy and France have expressed concerns about the program’s security and data practices.
But the overnight move by the Canberra government appears to be the government’s toughest move against Chinese chatbots.
“After considering the threat and risk analysis, I have determined that the use of DeepSeek products, apps and web services poses an unacceptable security risk to the Australian government,” said Home Affairs Minister Stephanie Foster in the order. She
also said that all non-corporate federal entities must “identify and remove existing instances of DeepSeek products, apps and web services on all Australian government systems and mobile devices” on Wednesday.
The order also requires preventing government systems and mobile devices from “accessing, using or installing DeepSeek products.”
This is the latest action taken by governments around the world, which have been keeping an eye on the services of the Chinese startup.
DeepSeek set off alarm bells last month when it claimed its new R1 chatbot was as capable as the US AI frontrunners but at a fraction of the cost.
It sent Silicon Valley in particular into a frenzy, with some saying its high performance and allegedly low cost set off alarm bells for US developers. Some experts have accused DeepSeek of reverse-engineering the functionality of leading US tech, such as the AI ​​that powers ChatGPT.
Several countries, including South Korea, Ireland, France, Australia and Italy, have now raised concerns about DeepSeek’s data practices, including how personal data is handled and what information is used to train DeepSeek’s AI systems.
The technology and trade dispute between China and Australia dates back several years to the worst crisis in relations between the two countries in decades.
Australia banned Chinese telecom giant Huawei from its national 5G network in 2018, citing national security concerns.
Canberra’s Huawei decision, a crackdown on Chinese influence operations overseas and calls for an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic have all angered Beijing.
A multibillion-dollar trade war erupted between Canberra and Beijing, but it eventually cooled late last year after China lifted the final hurdle to ban imports of live Australian lobsters.