Latest York state banned AI startup DeepSeek from government devices and networks because of “serious concerns” over potential data privacy and censorship risks posed by the China-based app, Gov. Kathy Hochul confirmed Monday.
Hochul’s office cited fears about “foreign government surveillance and censorship, including how DeepSeek might be used to reap user data and steal technology secrets.”
“Public safety is my top priority and we’re working aggressively to guard Latest Yorkers from foreign and domestic threats,” Hochul said in a press release.
“Latest York will proceed fighting to combat cyber threats, make sure the privacy and safety of our data, and safeguard against state-sponsored censorship.”
DeepSeek surged to the highest of app store download charts last month after the firm claimed to have trained a complicated AI model for lower than $6 million – and without access to probably the most advanced Nvidia computer chips, which were generally thought crucial to construct cutting-edge AI and are subject to US export controls.
The chatbot’s popularity spiked at the same time as cyber experts warned it poses glaring national security risks by mass-collecting data equivalent to IP addresses and keystroke patterns and storing all of them on servers in China, where the Communist regime could access the info.
The ban signifies that Latest York state employees will likely be unable to download DeepSeek on their government-issued devices. It doesn’t apply to their personal devices.
DeepSeek couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
The startup has displayed disturbing signs of censorship consistent with the Chinese Communist Party’s mandates – equivalent to refusing to reply questions on China’s leader Xi Jinping, the Tiananmen Square massacre and whether Taiwan is a sovereign country.
Similar data security concerns led state and federal lawmakers to crack down on China-owned TikTok, which was banned last month after its Chinese parent ByteDance didn’t divest its stake. President Trump issued an executive order delaying enforcement of the ban by 75 days.
TikTok has been banned on government devices in Latest York since 2020.
Some US lawmakers are pushing to ban DeepSeek from federal government devices, the Wall Street Journal reported last week. The US Navy has already banned using DeepSeek.
DeepSeek’s claims about developing an ultra-efficient model despite US restrictions helped trigger a $1 trillion stock market selloff.
Nevertheless, many experts, including Elon Musk and Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang, have said that DeepSeek likely has much more chips than it might publicly admit to due to export controls.
As The Post exclusively reported, DeepSeek also hired a minimum of 4 current employees who previously worked at Microsoft’s controversial AI lab in China – the existence of which US lawmakers have repeatedly criticized as a possible national security threat.
Latest York state banned AI startup DeepSeek from government devices and networks because of “serious concerns” over potential data privacy and censorship risks posed by the China-based app, Gov. Kathy Hochul confirmed Monday.
Hochul’s office cited fears about “foreign government surveillance and censorship, including how DeepSeek might be used to reap user data and steal technology secrets.”
“Public safety is my top priority and we’re working aggressively to guard Latest Yorkers from foreign and domestic threats,” Hochul said in a press release.
“Latest York will proceed fighting to combat cyber threats, make sure the privacy and safety of our data, and safeguard against state-sponsored censorship.”
DeepSeek surged to the highest of app store download charts last month after the firm claimed to have trained a complicated AI model for lower than $6 million – and without access to probably the most advanced Nvidia computer chips, which were generally thought crucial to construct cutting-edge AI and are subject to US export controls.
The chatbot’s popularity spiked at the same time as cyber experts warned it poses glaring national security risks by mass-collecting data equivalent to IP addresses and keystroke patterns and storing all of them on servers in China, where the Communist regime could access the info.
The ban signifies that Latest York state employees will likely be unable to download DeepSeek on their government-issued devices. It doesn’t apply to their personal devices.
DeepSeek couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
The startup has displayed disturbing signs of censorship consistent with the Chinese Communist Party’s mandates – equivalent to refusing to reply questions on China’s leader Xi Jinping, the Tiananmen Square massacre and whether Taiwan is a sovereign country.
Similar data security concerns led state and federal lawmakers to crack down on China-owned TikTok, which was banned last month after its Chinese parent ByteDance didn’t divest its stake. President Trump issued an executive order delaying enforcement of the ban by 75 days.
TikTok has been banned on government devices in Latest York since 2020.
Some US lawmakers are pushing to ban DeepSeek from federal government devices, the Wall Street Journal reported last week. The US Navy has already banned using DeepSeek.
DeepSeek’s claims about developing an ultra-efficient model despite US restrictions helped trigger a $1 trillion stock market selloff.
Nevertheless, many experts, including Elon Musk and Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang, have said that DeepSeek likely has much more chips than it might publicly admit to due to export controls.
As The Post exclusively reported, DeepSeek also hired a minimum of 4 current employees who previously worked at Microsoft’s controversial AI lab in China – the existence of which US lawmakers have repeatedly criticized as a possible national security threat.
