Why The US Navy Has Banned The Use Of DeepSeek AI

Artificial intelligence has taken the world by storm as a useful tool for almost every industry. The biggest name on the market right now is DeepSeek A.I., a chatbot developed by a Chinese startup that became the most downloaded app overnight, surpassing OpenAI's ChatGPT. Despite its popularity and pressure it's putting on American companies developing their own AI chatbot, the U.S. Navy has essentially ordered every member in its service to avoid downloading or using the app. CNBC reported that on January 24, 2025, the Navy emailed its members about its "potential security and ethical concerns associated with the model's origin and usage."

DeepSeek A.I. is open sourced, so any developer can use it, and the Navy has a strict rule against such software. The Navy isn't completely against A.I. In fact, the U.S. military has some rather scary A.I. applications, but officials are vehemently opposed to open-source applications, especially from Chinese sources. The Navy has a directive that says, "Commercial AI language models are not recommended for operational use cases until security control requirements have been fully investigated, identified and approved for use within controlled environments."

As evidenced by TikTok being banned in the U.S., the government views China as a leading threat to cyber security. So much so that the U.S. Reps. Darin LaHood, R-Ill., and Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J. are introducing a bill to the House of Representatives that would ban DeepSeek A.I. from being downloaded on government devices. The U.S. isn't the only country looking to ban the A.I. model, though.

While many TikTok users questioned the U.S. government's motives toward the social media app, saying it was a threat to national security but wouldn't release any evidence, there concrete evidence found in the A.I. app. A hidden code found within DeepSeek that would send login data to China Mobile, a telecommunications company that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission has barred from operating within the U.S. since 2019. It's not just the U.S. Navy prohibiting its personnel from downloading the app. Shortly after the Navy sent out the email about A.I., NASA blocked DeepSeek from its employee devices. It goes further than that, though, with other countries blocking the app from their devices, as well.

South Korea has a general ban on A.I. programs, including ChatGPT and now has a third-party service investigating how data is managed on DeepSeek. Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power already banned DeepSeek on its employees' devices in January. Australia, Italy, and Taiwan have followed suit, prohibiting or limiting their federal employees from using the app. It can be disconcerting for governments to see that an app owned by an adversarial nation requires access to loads of personal information. It doesn't just collect user birthdays, phone numbers, and passwords.

DeepSeek's privacy policy states that it requires the user's IP address, operating system, and keystroke patterns. An IP address on its own should be carefully protected because with that, an outside source can track your online activity, restrict access to websites, and carry out a DDoS attack.