Key Points
- Government-issued devices need to have artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot DeepSeek deleted immediately.
- Home Affairs has issued a directive to ban the app for public servants following "threat information".
- It's understood public broadcasters SBS and ABC, as well as the NBN will be exempt from the ban.
Public servants have been ordered to delete Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot DeepSeek from all government-issued devices, as the government implements an immediate ban.
Effective from 10.30pm on Tuesday, the direction from the Home Affairs Department follows "risk and threat information" from Australia's intelligence agencies — with authorities stating "DeepSeek poses an unacceptable risk to Australian Government technology."
"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," Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said.
"Our approach is country-agnostic and focused on the risk to the Australian Government and our assets."
The ban comes days after Australian cyber security firm Cyber CX warned DeepSeek's output — and the user data it collects — is "almost certainly… subject to direction and control by the Chinese government."
While the ban only applies to government entities — not the general public — the government has urged Australians to ensure they are "well informed about how their data can be used online."
It follows a similar ban on Chinese social media app TikTok from government devices in April 2023, due to national security concerns.
It's understood public broadcasters SBS and ABC, as well as the NBN will be exempt from the ban.
Ban comes as global AI race intensifies
The government ban on DeepSeek comes a week after the app shot to the top of Apple Store's downloads, stunning the global stock market and prompting .
On the same day, Australia's newly-appointed chief scientist Tony Haymet described DeepSeek as an example of "how disruptive technology can be."
"Privately funded in Shanghai, a bunch of talented 22-year-olds without access to the world's best chips, without access to Nvidia chips, seem to have created something that's even better than the best companies in the western world have done," he told the media.
Adding to hype around DeepSeek, are claims by its creators that the app was built at a fraction of the cost of US competitors, like OpenAI, because it uses fewer advanced chips.
The United States has implemented an ongoing ban on the export of advanced chips to China.
Industry Minister Ed Husic said the global race for technological supremacy is nothing new.
"The reality is there is a race in the development of artificial intelligence. It's been going on since the aftermath of the Second World War," he said.
"The Chinese develop products in their ecosystem on the understanding that there'll be appreciation by their consumers about [their] approaches to data and privacy management, for instance.
"Does that translate to an exportable product that might get embraced elsewhere? I think that’s an open question."
