As reports from the advisory dated 29 January hit the social media circle on Tuesday ahead of its visit by the head of the firm, Sam Altman in India, due Wednesday with plans to also call upon IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, have reported.
"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," said the finance ministry advisory.
Three finance ministry officials on condition of anonymity told Reuters that the note was authentic and had been issued this week.
Finance ministry, OpenAI and DeepSeek representatives did not respond to Reuter’s queries.
It is not clear if other central government ministries have issued similar directives.
Several countries have put restrictions or warnings on DeepSeek. Taiwan has banned all its government agencies and critical infrastructure service providers from using DeepSeek’s technology this week citing security concerns.
Taiwan’s digital ministry said no official or confidential information should be used to query DeepSeek since it’s a Chinese product. “It is a product that endangers national information security,” said the ministry’s statement.
US congressional offices have also been warned not to install DeepSeek. UK has issued similar warning to its citizens and businesses.
