Taiwan bans government departments from using DeepSeek AI

Taipei: Taiwan on Monday banned government departments from using Chinese startup DeepSeek's artificial intelligence (AI) service as it was a security risk, toughening language from last week which said it should not be used.

Democratically governed Taiwan has long been wary of Chinese technology given Beijing's sovereignty claims over the island and its military and political threats against the government in Taipei.

During a cabinet meeting, Taiwan Premier Cho Jung-tai said DeepSeek was banned from use in all government agencies "to ensure the country's information security", his office said in a statement.

There were also concerns about censorship on DeepSeek and the risk of data ending up in China, the statement said.

Taiwan's digital ministry had said on Friday that government departments should not use DeepSeek, but did not specifically say it was banned.

Authorities in South Korea, France, Italy and Ireland and other countries have also been looking into DeepSeek's use of personal data.