Employees at Microsoft have been banned from using the DeepSeek artificial intelligence due to concerns over data security in China and possible influence from Chinese propaganda. This was stated by company vice president Brad Smith during a Senate hearing in the U.S., as reported by TechCrunch.

According to Smith, DeepSeek is also unavailable in the Microsoft Store because user data is stored on servers in China and may be accessed by local authorities under Chinese law.

Despite the ban on the application, Microsoft previously provided access to the AI model DeepSeek R1 through its Azure cloud platform. Smith noted that Microsoft has managed to penetrate the DeepSeek AI model and "alter" it to eliminate "harmful side effects."

This marks Microsoft’s first public statement regarding restrictions on DeepSeek, although other companies and countries have already enacted similar bans. The DeepSeek application is seen as a competitor to Copilot—Microsoft's own AI solution for internet search.