Microsoft employees banned from using DeepSeek, TechCrunch reports

Microsoft employees aren’t allowed to use DeepSeek due to data security and propaganda concerns, Microsoft (MSFT) vice chairman and president Brad Smith said in a Senate hearing on Thursday “At Microsoft we don’t allow our employees to use the DeepSeek app,” Smith said, adding that Microsoft hasn’t put DeepSeek in its app store over those concerns. Smith said the restriction stems from the risk that data will be stored in China and that DeepSeek’s answers could be influenced by “Chinese propaganda.” DeepSeek is a Chinese-built large-language open-source model that claims to rival offerings from Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Meta Platforms (META) but using a much smaller budget.