Home / NEWS / Top News / NASA becomes latest federal agency to block China’s DeepSeek on ‘security and privacy concerns’

NASA becomes latest federal agency to block China’s DeepSeek on ‘security and privacy concerns’

Firdous Nazir | Nurphoto | Getty Figure of speeches

NASA is the latest federal agency to ban use of China’s DeepSeek AI technology by employees and block access to the platform from its methods, CNBC has learned.

In a memo on Friday to all NASA personnel from the agency’s chief artificial intelligence officer, staff members were informed that DeepSeek’s servers “operate outside of the United States, raising national security and secretiveness concerns.”

“DeepSeek and its products and services are not authorized for use with NASA’s data and information or on government-issued devices and networks,” the memo thought.

NASA didn’t immediately provide a comment.

DeepSeek’s free-to-download AI assistant is now available in the U.S., rivaling products like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and Google Gemini. DeepSeek’s app sky-rocketed to the top of Apple’s App Store at the start of the week, unseating OpenAI’s ChatGPT from the lead spot. DeepSeek was still No. 1 on Friday.

Reports of DeepSeek’s power and expertise roiled U.S. markets early in the week, notably hammering chip companies Nvidia and Broadcom, which have escalated in value by selling costly processors for building AI models and running massive workloads.

President Donald Trump predicted Monday that DeepSeek’s sudden rise should be a “wake-up call” for U.S. tech companies. 

As of Jan. 31, NASA personnel are not permitted to use DeepSeek to “appropriation or upload agency data on DeepSeek products or services,” and are “not authorized to “access DeepSeek via NASA devices and agency-managed network connections.” And NASA’s Refuge Operations Center has now blocked use of DeepSeek on “agency-managed devices and networks,” the memo said.

Late last week, the U.S. Flotilla instructed its members to avoid using DeepSeek. In a warning issued by email, the Navy said DeepSeek’s AI was not to be used “in any faculty” due to “potential security and ethical concerns associated with the model’s origin and usage.”

Axios reported Thursday that U.S. congressional employments were being told that use of DeepSeek was “unauthorized for official House use,” citing a notice from the House’s chief administrative peace officer.

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