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Following closely behind the federal government, the South Australian government has announced a ban on DeepSeek in government departments and networks.
Citing security and privacy concerns, the Chinese AI has been banned for use by public servants and has been blocked on government networks, just 24 hours after the federal government made the same move.
“We have taken swift action to ban DeepSeek on government devices, based upon the best advice from federal security advisors and our chief information officer,” said South Australian Treasurer Stephen Mullighan.
“I have approved a directive for DeepSeek to be removed, banned and blocked from any government devices.
“This is a necessary and prudent measure to protect the security of government information and any information held on behalf of the general public.
“I would also urge members of the general public who use DeepSeek to be vigilant and not upload any personal information they may not want to enter the public sphere.”
DeepSeek took the world by storm with its latest model, managing to compete with AI giant OpenAI and its chatbot ChatGPT, despite allegedly using much weaker chips and having a much lower cost to create.
However, questions regarding the regulatory side of DeepSeek have been raised, particularly with the capability of the Chinese government to access data acquired by DeepSeek.
The bot can also be more easily tricked into performing actions that ChatGPT refuses to do, such as writing malicious code or a phishing email.
“We know the potential and opportunities of AI; however, when it comes to unacceptable risk to sensitive government information, it is imperative that we take swift action,” said South Australian House of Assembly member Michael Brown.
“As a government, we must be nimble to the emerging opportunities and threats of AI, and we have moved quickly to protect the government and community from the potential threat posed by this platform.”
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