Mont. AG Leads State Coalition Urging Congressional Ban of DeepSeek AI
A coalition of 21 Republican attorneys general in a letter Thursday called on Congress to ban Chinese-based AI platform DeepSeek by passing the No DeepSeek on Government Devices Act (HR-1121), citing national security risks.
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“DeepSeek is a Trojan horse sent in by the Chinese Communist Party to spy on our country. It poses a serious national security risk and should not be allowed on government devices,” Montana AG Austin Knudsen said in a press release. “I have already banned the platform at the Montana Department of Justice because we know DeepSeek is tracking users’ search history, IP addresses, and keystroke patterns then giving that information to the Chinese government."
The letter comes shortly after Knudsen banned the AI system on his state's department of justice devices (see 2503040070). Texas, New York and South Dakota have also banned DeepSeek on government devices (see 2502100024 and 2503040068). The AGs said in the letter that the governments of Canada, Australia, South Korea and Taiwan have already blocked access to DeepSeek on government devices over security concerns, and the Italian government has banned the AI platform across the country.
"According to cybersecurity experts, DeepSeek 'has code hidden in its programming which has the built-in capability to send user data directly to the Chinese government,'" the letter said. "Given the Chinese desire to steal America’s secrets and the ability of DeepSeek to carry out this theft, Congress should quickly pass legislation to ban DeepSeek on government devices."