Australia bans Chinese AI company DeepSeek after it knocks billions of dollars off the stock market

Australia has banned DeepSeek from all government devices and systems due to perceived security risks the Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up poses.

DeepSeek sent shockwaves through stock markets in January and spooked Silicon Valley when it unveiled its chatbot which matched the performance of its US rivals – claiming to have a much lower training cost. The company has subsequently released its own AI image generator, Janus-Pro-7B.

Billions of dollars were wiped off the stock markets internationally, including in Australia, where stocks tied to AI dropped dramatically overnight.

Tony Burke, home affairs minister announced the ban, stating all DeepSeek products, applications and services would be immediately removed from government networks, Bloomberg reported.

“AI holds immense potential, but we will not hesitate to act when security threats are identified,” Burke said, adding that the decision was based on the risk assessment rather than the company’s Chinese origins, stating that Australia’s approach remained “country-agnostic.”

While the ban is restricted to government devices, Burke advised Australian citizens to remain cautious about their digital presence and data protection.

This is not the first time Australia has been unwilling to engage with Chinese companies in the past. In 2018, excluded Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE from the country’s 5G infrastructure, citing issues of national security as the reason.

The UK and Australian government have ordered Chinese-made security cameras to be removed from sensitive sites in March last 2023.

Taiwan has also blocked the service, while Ireland’s Data Protection Commission has requested further details on DeepSeek’s plans. Bloomberg has also reported that numerous private companies have pre-emptively restricted access to the AI platform.

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