Australia has banned DeepSeek from all government devices following a recommendation from its security agency, citing privacy and malware risks posed by China's AI program.
AI DeepSeek banned on Australian government devices - Photo: REUTERS
According to AFP news agency, the Australian Department of Home Affairs issued a directive banning China's DeepSeek artificial intelligence (AI) program to government employees on the night of February 3.
“After reviewing the threat and risk analysis, I have determined that the use of DeepSeek’s products, applications and web services poses an unacceptable level of security risk to the Australian Government,” Home Affairs Minister Stephanie Foster said in the order.
From 4 February, all Australian non-corporate federal agencies must "identify and remove all DeepSeek web products, applications and services from Australian Government systems and mobile devices".
The directive also prevents DeepSeek products from being accessed, used, or installed on government systems and devices.
"This is a move the government has taken on the advice of security agencies, it's not a symbolic move at all. We don't want to expose government systems to these apps," the government's special envoy for cybersecurity, Andrew Charlton, told ABC Radio .
He highlighted the risks to information privacy, the malware that users could be exposed to.
The outright ban on DeepSeek on Australian government devices is one of the toughest moves yet against the Chinese chatbot, as a growing number of countries, including South Korea, Italy and France, have expressed concerns about the security and how the AI handles data.
Australia banned Huawei from its 5G network in 2018, citing national security concerns. TikTok has also been banned from government equipment by 2023 on the recommendation of Australian intelligence agencies.
DeepSeek has sent shockwaves through the tech world by claiming its R1 chatbot is on par with leading US AI technologies, but at a much lower cost.
Many people consider this a wake-up call for American developers, while some experts accuse DeepSeek of copying (reverse-engineering) leading American technologies such as the ChatGPT AI model.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/uc-cam-ai-deepseek-tren-cac-thiet-bi-chinh-phu-vi-lo-ngai-an-ninh-20250205065029124.htm
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