Home Affairs Minister Takes 'Swift and Decisive Action'

Barely one week after its release to the world, China's new AI tool DeepSeek is to be banned - effectively immediately - from all Australian Government devices, reports The West Australian.

According to the state's newspaper, Australia's national security and intelligence agencies have determined that DeepSeek - developed by a Hangzhou-based startup, “poses an unacceptable risk to Australian Government technology”.

The direction was made under the same framework used to prohibit TikTok from Government devices in 2023.

The newspaper quoted Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke as saying:  “AI is a technology full of potential and opportunity – but the Government will not hesitate to act when our agencies identify a national security risk.”

Further, according to the news report, the Australian government has also encouraged all Australians to "review how the platform is using their data" - following the nation's largest cybersecurity provider, CyberCX, issuing a threat advisory alert. CyberCX says it's "almost certain” that DeepSeek and the user data it collects "are subject to direction and control by the Chinese government".

Meantime, Taiwan's government has taken a similar action, as has the Italian government.

DeepSeek’s privacy policy openly admits to collecting substantial personal data — including but definitely not even limited to date of birth, phone numbers and "keystroke patterns".

Read  The Customer & The Constituent's article about DeepSeek's entry onto the world AI stage  here.