New York state banned AI startup DeepSeek from authorities gadgets and networks on account of “serious concerns” over potential knowledge privateness and censorship dangers posed by the China-based app, Gov. Kathy Hochul confirmed Monday.
Hochul’s workplace cited fears about “foreign government surveillance and censorship, including how DeepSeek can be used to harvest user data and steal technology secrets.”
“Public safety is my top priority and we’re working aggressively to protect New Yorkers from foreign and domestic threats,” Hochul mentioned in a press release.
“New York will continue fighting to combat cyber threats, ensure the privacy and safety of our data, and safeguard against state-sponsored censorship.”
DeepSeek surged to the highest of app retailer obtain charts final month after the agency claimed to have educated a complicated AI mannequin for lower than $6 million – and with out entry to essentially the most superior Nvidia laptop chips, which had been usually thought crucial to construct cutting-edge AI and are topic to US export controls.
The chatbot’s reputation spiked at the same time as cyber specialists warned it poses obtrusive nationwide safety dangers by mass-collecting knowledge resembling IP addresses and keystroke patterns and storing all of them on servers in China, the place the Communist regime might entry the information.
The ban implies that New York state staff will likely be unable to obtain DeepSeek on their government-issued gadgets. It doesn’t apply to their private gadgets.
DeepSeek couldn’t instantly be reached for remark.
The startup has displayed disturbing indicators of censorship according to the Chinese language Communist Social gathering’s mandates – resembling refusing to reply questions on China’s chief Xi Jinping, the Tiananmen Sq. bloodbath and whether or not Taiwan is a sovereign nation.
Related knowledge safety considerations led state and federal lawmakers to crack down on China-owned TikTok, which was banned final month after its Chinese language mother or father ByteDance didn’t divest its stake. President Trump issued an govt order delaying enforcement of the ban by 75 days.
TikTok has been banned on authorities gadgets in New York since 2020.
Some US lawmakers are pushing to ban DeepSeek from federal authorities gadgets, the Wall Road Journal reported final week. The US Navy has already banned using DeepSeek.
DeepSeek’s claims about creating an ultra-efficient mannequin regardless of US restrictions helped set off a $1 trillion inventory market selloff.
Nonetheless, many specialists, together with Elon Musk and Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang, have mentioned that DeepSeek seemingly has much more chips than it might publicly admit to due to export controls.
As The Put up solely reported, DeepSeek additionally employed not less than 4 present staff who beforehand labored at Microsoft’s controversial AI lab in China – the existence of which US lawmakers have repeatedly criticized as a possible nationwide safety menace.
