New Delhi: The central finance ministry has directed its officers not to download or use AI tools and apps such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek in office computers and devices, saying they pose confidentiality risks to data and documents.

"It has been determined that AI tools and AI apps (such as ChatGPT, DeepSeek) in the office computers and devices pose risks for confidentiality of government, data and documents," Department of Expenditure under the ministry said in a note on January 29.

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The move comes at a time when countries like Australia and Italy have blocked the use of Chinese AI app DeepSeek in their official systems over privacy and data safety concerns.

As the concern of using AI tools in the ministry lingers, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, which has developed artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT is on a whirlwind tour in India. He has met top government officials, industry captains and participated in a fireside chat on Wednesday morning.

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DeepSeek's latest AI offering has drawn global attention for introducing low-cost model at just $6 million against global average of billions of dollars. Further, DeepSeek's R1 only uses a fraction of compute power as compared to established AI models like ChatGPT.

Last week, DeepSeek overtook ChatGPT as the top-ranked free app on Apple's Appstore, as the US tech industry that has long-justified injecting billions of dollars into AI investments, watched in sheer disbelief.

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