Chinese AI app DeepSeek banned from Australian government devices over security concerns

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The Chinese artificial intelligence app DeepSeek has been banned from Australian government devices over national security concerns. Political reporter Olivia Caisley has the details from Canberra.

Transcript

00:00Politicians and public servants will be forced to remove DeepSeek from their work computers

00:08and mobile phones and will be prevented from re-downloading it or using it again in the

00:14future.

00:15Of course, the caveat is that they could continue to use it on their private devices, but it

00:20is not advised.

00:21So why the ban?

00:23Ultimately, there are real security fears that DeepSeek could share sensitive information

00:29with the Chinese Communist Party and a red flag has also been raised about censorship

00:35concerns.

00:36Well, remember, DeepSeek is the company that triggered a bit of a share market bloodbath

00:41last week after the company behind it said that it had developed this technology with

00:48a fraction of the computing powers of some of its US rivals, such as ChatGBT.

00:54When it comes to the political reaction here in Canberra today, this move is being welcomed

00:59by both sides of politics.

01:01While the ban doesn't apply to Australians more generally, the public is being reminded

01:06to be really careful of the information they share online, as well as the apps that they

01:10use.

01:11It's a wonderful tool, very helpful for many applications in our lives, but you need to

01:15be aware that the information that you upload may not be private.

01:19So our advice is that we wouldn't want people to upload anything that they wouldn't want

01:23to ultimately become public.

01:26The second risk is that information that you get back from generative AI may not be

01:30accurate.

01:31It might contain misinformation or it might be biased or not cover some topics.

01:36This ban comes amid a broader debate here in Australia about the power and responsibilities

01:41of the tech giants.

01:43So earlier this week, the Albanese government tabled an independent review into the Online

01:48Safety Act, and it made 67 recommendations.

01:51One of the key ones was forcing the tech giants, whether that be, say, Google or Apple,

01:58to implement a duty of care, which would require them to actively remove or prevent harmful

02:04content, otherwise be slapped with billions of dollars of fines.

02:09Ultimately, those recommendations have been put on ice until after the next federal election.

02:15But we did hear from Green Senator Sarah Hansen-Young this morning on the ABC, and she says that

02:21safeguards generally need to be strengthened.

02:24What it does do is highlights just how fast technology is moving and how quickly governments

02:32need to catch up with the regulation of big tech in particular, AI, social media, online

02:41spaces.

02:42And I am worried that despite being able to move fast on something like this in relation

02:49to this Chinese-owned chatbot, that we're seeing the government and seemingly the opposition

02:57starting to crab walk away from stronger regulations against the big tech companies and billionaires

03:07like, of course, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.

03:09This isn't the first time that the government has moved to ban an online platform.

03:15Also, TikTok was banned from government devices in 2023.

03:20Ultimately, that was also over potential foreign interference concerns.

03:24But as we know, that hasn't stopped politicians from getting burner phones or using TikTok

03:30on their personal phones to try and connect with the electorate.

03:33No doubt something we'll continue to see as the federal election looms ever closer.

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