US bans Deepseek technology across federal civilian agencies
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The US Department of Homeland Security has issued a ban prohibiting federal civilian agencies from using AI technology developed by the Chinese lab Deepseek. This directive requires agencies to remove existing Deepseek products from their IT systems and prevents them from purchasing new ones in the future. The order extends to affiliated companies and third-party services that utilize Deepseek implementations, though specific security concerns and removal deadlines were not explicitly stated. This decision is grounded in a 2018 US law regarding supply chain security within federal procurement processes. Previously, the government had considered broader restrictions on Chinese open-weight models following the emergence of powerful alternatives like Kimi K3 from Moonshot AI. However, those earlier plans were paused after major tech giants such as Nvidia, Microsoft, Google, and Meta raised objections against stricter regulations. While OpenAI and Anthropic had advocated for these restrictions, the current ban focuses specifically on Deepseek across civilian federal operations.
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