The Ministry of Finance in India has advised employees to refrain from using AI tools like ChatGPT and DeepSeek for official tasks due to risks to government data confidentiality. This internal directive, confirmed by ministry officials, reflects a broader trend as other nations like Australia and Italy also impose similar restrictions, citing security concerns.
New Delhi: The Ministry of Finance has issued an internal advisory directing its employees to avoid using AI tools, including ChatGPT and DeepSeek, for official work due to concerns over the confidentiality of government documents and data.
The advisory, dated January 29, warns that using AI-powered applications in office computers and devices poses a threat to sensitive government information. “It has been determined that AI tools and AI apps (such as ChatGPT, DeepSeek etc.) in the office computers and devices pose risks for confidentiality of (government) data and documents,” the advisory states.
Three officials from the finance ministry confirmed to Reuters that the directive is authentic and was circulated internally this week.
India is not alone in restricting AI tools in government offices. Countries like Australia and Italy have also banned the use of DeepSeek, citing similar data security risks.
The advisory gained traction on social media on Tuesday, coinciding with the scheduled visit of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to India on Wednesday. Altman is also expected to meet IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw during his visit.
The finance ministry’s move comes just days after IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced that DeepSeek R1, an AI model developed by a Chinese company, will soon be hosted on Indian servers to address data privacy concerns.
“The good thing is that DeepSeek is an open-source model, and we are very soon going to host DeepSeek on Indian servers, the way we have hosted Llama (Meta’s AI model) on Indian servers,”
Vaishnaw said.
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He also emphasized that all AI applications must be evaluated for data privacy and security, and only those that meet strict security standards will be approved.
“Everything that is open-source can be taken and hosted on our server so data privacy parameters can be addressed, and that we are going to do soon,”
he added.
According to Vaishnaw, the technical requirements, including the number of servers needed to host the DeepSeek V3 foundational model, have already been worked out.
This decision marks a significant step in India’s efforts to safeguard government data while still exploring AI advancements under strict security measures.
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