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Mon, 19 Oct 2026

Mon, 19 Oct 2026 US bans DeepSeek AI from government use as tech tension with China continues

DeepSeek is a powerful, popular and relatively inexpensive artificial intelligence model out of China.

* The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has ordered all use of DeepSeek AI technology to be removed from most government systems.
* The ban affects civilian agencies, including the Department of Treasury, State and Justice, but excludes Defense departments.
* The move follows criticism of Chinese AI firms by the Trump administration and American companies.
* Anthropic and OpenAI have accused Chinese firms of copying their AI models, including DeepSeek.
* The White House has criticized "malicious exploitation" of US AI firms by rival Chinese firms.
* DeepSeek's free chatbot app is one of the most downloaded apps in the Apple App Store rankings.
* The technology was developed using an open-source model that costs significantly less than proprietary AI models like Google's Gemini or OpenAI's Codex.
* The latest version of DeepSeek was released last week and has been praised for its capabilities.