Microsoft employees have been banned from using the DeepSeek artificial intelligence chatbot due to concerns about data retention in China and possible influence by Chinese propaganda, company vice president Brad Smith said during a hearing in the US Senate, TechCrunch reports.
According to Smith, DeepSeek is also not available in the Microsoft Store because user data is stored on servers in China and could be transferred to local intelligence agencies under Chinese law.
Despite the ban on the app, Microsoft previously made the DeepSeek R1 AI model available through its Azure cloud platform. Smith said Microsoft was able to hack into the DeepSeek AI model and "modify" it to eliminate "harmful side effects."
This is Microsoft's first public statement about restricting DeepSeek, although other companies and countries have already implemented similar bans. DeepSeek is considered a competitor to Copilot, Microsoft's own AI solution for internet search.