Australia has announced a ban on DeepSeek on all government-issued systems and devices.
Home Affairs Secretary Stephanie Foster told public servants of the decision late on Tuesday, based on advice from national security and intelligence agencies on the security risks of the new China-owned artificial intelligence chatbot.
“After considering threat and risk analysis, I have determined that the use of DeepSeek products, applications and web services poses an unacceptable level of security risk to the Australian Government,” said Foster in her direction.
All government entities were told to "prevent the use or installation of DeepSeek products, applications and web services and where found remove all existing instances of DeepSeek products, applications and web services from all Australian Government systems and devices.”
Tony Burke, Home Affairs minister said the risk posed by Deepseek to government technology was “unacceptable” and that the ban would ultimately protect national security and interest.
"AI is a technology full of potential and opportunity - but the Government will not hesitate to act when our agencies identify a national security risk," said Burke.
The ban does not extend to devices owned by the average citizen.
Last week Italian data protection authority the Garante ordered DeepSeek to be blocked in the country after they failed to address the regulator's concerns over the company’s privacy policy.
Australia’s decision to ban the AI company from government devices follows Taiwan's ban on government departments using Deepseek earlier in the week.
This is not a first for Australia, where in April 2023 the Albanese government imposed a ban on the use of Tiktok (owned by Chinese-owned ByteDance) on all government-issued devices.
DeepSeek is the latest major player in AI that recently shook the market after introducing a new model that cost far less to generate than other competitors' products.
Related content
