Reported at www.themandarin.com.au: State and territory governments in Australia, including the ACT, NSW, South Australia, Queensland, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory, have banned the Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek on government devices, citing security concerns.

The bans follow a directive from the Department of Home Affairs and emphasise data sovereignty issues related to user data collection.

Experts note that while DeepSeek poses risks, similar concerns also apply to US-based AI models like ChatGPT, with the key difference being the legislative power Australia has over US companies compared to those based in China.