On Tuesday, Australia officially announced that it banned DeepSeek on all government devices, citing “an unacceptable level of security risk” from the Chinese artificial intelligence program.
Stephanie Foster, Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs, stated in the directive, “After a comprehensive threat and risk analysis, I have concluded that the use of DeepSeek products, applications, and web services presents an unacceptable level of security risk to the Australian Government.”
Effective Wednesday, all non-corporate Commonwealth entities must “identify and eliminate all existing instances of DeepSeek products, applications, and web services on all Australian Government systems and mobile devices,” as per Foster’sFoster instructed
Furthermore, the directive prohibits accessing, using, or installing DeepSeek across all government systems and mobile devices.
This measure reflects a broader international response as governments worldwide heighten scrutiny over the operations of the Chinese startup. Concerns escalated last month when DeepSeek announced its new R1 chatbot, which purportedly matches the capabilities of leading U.S. artificial intelligence technologies at a significantly lower cost.
This development has prompted countries, including South Korea, Ireland, France, Australia, and Italy, to raise issues regarding DeepSeek’s data management practices, particularly how it processes personal data and the sources of information used to train its AI systems.
