Microsoft employees have been banned from using the Chinese chatbot DeepSeek for data security reasons.
This was stated at a Senate hearing by Microsoft Vice Chairman and President Brad Smith, TechCrunch reports.
While many organizations and even countries have imposed restrictions on DeepSeek, this is the first time Microsoft has publicly announced such a ban.
Smith said the restriction was due to the risk that the data would be stored in China and that DeepSeekʼs responses could be influenced by Chinese propaganda.
DeepSeek’s privacy policy states that the company stores user data on Chinese servers. Such data is subject to Chinese law, which requires it to cooperate with the country’s intelligence agencies. DeepSeek also heavily censors topics that the Chinese government considers sensitive.
Despite Smith’s critical comments about DeepSeek, Microsoft has previously made the DeepSeek R1 AI model available through its Azure cloud platform. This is a bit different from directly providing access to the DeepSeek chatbot. Because DeepSeek is open source, anyone can download the model, store it on their own servers, and provide it to customers without sending data to China.
That doesnʼt eliminate other risks, such as spreading propaganda or generating malicious code, though, Smith said Microsoft was able to "go inside" the DeepSeek AI model and "modify" it to remove "harmful side effects".
What is DeepSeek?
On January 27, DeepSeek overtook ChatGPT to become the most popular free app on the App Store. On the same day, the Chinese chatbot was subjected to a massive cyberattack.
DeepSeek was founded in 2023 by Liang Wenfeng, a 40-year-old graduate of the School of Information and Electronic Engineering. He set up a store for Nvidia A100 chips, which are now banned from being exported to China. Media reports suggest that this may have prompted him to launch DeepSeek, combining these chips with cheaper, lower-end ones that are still available for import.
DeepSeek is based on the open-source DeepSeek-V3 model. Some experts say that the model was developed for less than $6 million — competitors spend much more. However, other experts dispute this information.
OpenAI, the creator of the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT, said on January 29 that Chinese companies are “constantly” trying to use American competitors to improve their AI models.
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