Finance Ministry warns staffers not to use DeepSeek’s AI over security risks: Report

The ministry’s advisory comes amid several global developments in the AI landscape.

On one hand, several countries, public sector departments, and corporations have prohibited the internal use of Chinese startup DeepSeek’s AI technology just days after its rise.

Perhaps the biggest concern over DeepSeek is that user data could be shared with the government in China, which has laws that require companies to share data with local intelligence agencies upon their request.

But these data protection concerns may only exist with the application layer of DeepSeek’s AI, as running some of its AI models locally reportedly ensures that the company does not get its hands on sensitive user data.

OpenAI CEO Sam Atlman, on the other hand, is on a scheduled visit to India and is reportedly due to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi even as the company behind ChatGPT faces legal challenges from several Indian news organisations, including The Indian Express, alleging copyright infringement.

“India is an incredibly important market for AI in general and OpenAI in particular. It is our second biggest market, we tripled our users here in the last year,” Altman said during a closed-door interaction with Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday, February 5.