New evidence has come to light that the government of New York State is not entirely bonkers. Citing concerns about CCP-directed censorship and surveillance, the state’s governor, Kathy Hochul, has issued a directive to prohibit the use of the AI chatbot app DeepSeek on state devices (New York Post, February 10, 2025).
“Public safety is my top priority and we’re working aggressively to protect New Yorkers from foreign and domestic threats,” Hochul said in a statement….
DeepSeek surged to the top of app store download charts last month after the firm claimed to have trained an advanced AI model for less than $6 million—and without access to the most advanced Nvidia computer chips, which were generally thought necessary to build cutting-edge AI and are subject to US export controls.
Both claims, about the cheapness of the model and the primitiveness of the chips, have been questioned. See, for example, James Roth’s piece “How Did DeepSeek Deep-Six….” and this.
The chatbot’s popularity spiked even as cyber experts warned it poses glaring national security risks by mass-collecting data such as IP addresses and keystroke patterns and storing them all on servers in China, where the Communist regime could access the data.
Hochul stresses that “New York will continue fighting to combat cyber threats, ensure the privacy and safety of our data, and safeguard against state-sponsored censorship.”
The governor and other New York State officials should also keep an eye out for Chinese spies working in the New York State government and do what they can to prevent New York State–sponsored censorship.
Texas had already issued a similar ban on several different Chinese apps, including DeepSeek. And the U.S. Congress is considering a bill to keep DeepSeek out of federal offices.
The U.S. Navy has instructed its sailors to avoid using DeepSeek “in any capacity.”
Also see:
StoptheCCP.org: “Texas Governor Greg Abbott Adds to Anti-CCP Defenses”
StoptheCCP.org: “Congress May Ban DeepSeek From Federal Gadgets”
StoptheCCP.org: “How Did DeepSeek Deep-Six the Chinese and American Competition (If It Did)?”
