More US government departments ban controversial AI model DeepSeek

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US Department of Commerce staff have reportedly been banned from using DeepSeek on government devices
This follows similar bans from other US government agencies and departments
A bipartisan bill has been introduced into Congress to ban the model from all US government devices

Staff at the US Department of Commerce have been banned from using the Chinese AI model on government-issued devices.

According to Reuters, employees are forbidden from downloading, viewing, accessing applications, desktop apps, or websites related to DeepSeek.

"To help keep Department of Commerce information systems safe, access to the new Chinese based AI DeepSeek is broadly prohibited on all GFE," said a mass email to employees regarding their government-furnished equipment.

Data privacy concerns

The chatbot has also been banned by the US Navy, which has asked staff to avoid using it in “any capacity” due to “potential security and ethical concerns associated with the model’s origin and usage”.

Large Language Models like DeepSeek collect huge amounts of personal information, and scrape the web to collect vast amounts of data in training the model, which has led states banning the tool, such as Italy’s data protection authority blocking the model over privacy concerns, finding the information given to regulators ‘totally insufficient’.

In February 2025, a bipartisan bill was introduced into the US Congress aiming to “protect Americans from DeepSeek” by banning the AI on all government devices for federal employees.

“The Chinese Communist Party has made it abundantly clear that it will exploit any tool at its disposal to undermine our national security, spew harmful disinformation, and collect data on Americans,” said Congressman Josh Gottheimer.

“Now, we have deeply disturbing evidence that they are using DeepSeek to steal the sensitive data of U.S. citizens. This is a five alarm national security fire. We must get to the bottom of DeepSeek’s malign activities. We simply can’t risk the CCP infiltrating the devices of our government officials and jeopardizing our national security."

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Ellen has been writing for almost four years, with a focus on post-COVID policy whilst studying for BA Politics and International Relations at the University of Cardiff, followed by an MA in Political Communication. Before joining TechRadar Pro as a Junior Writer, she worked for Future Publishing’s MVC content team, working with merchants and retailers to upload content.