Microsoft is the latest company to reveal that it prohibits its employees from using DeepSeek over cybersecurity concerns.

DeepSeek took the AI and tech industry by storm, delivering a competitive AI model at a fraction of the cost and using third-rate hardware, compared to companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. The AI model has quickly risen to the top of the charts, both in capabilities and usage.

Despite its popularity, lawmakers and industry leaders alike have sounded the alarm, saying the app should not be trusted. Microsoft President Brad Smith is the latest, saying Microsoft has banned its employees from using.

Smith made his remarks before Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation. The committee was convened for a hearing titled “Winning the AI Race: Strengthening U.S. Capabilities in Computing and Innovation”.

“At Microsoft we don’t allow our employees to use the DeepSeek app,” Smith said, via TechCrunch. He went on to say that the app is not available for download via Microsoft’s app store.

Much of the concern regarding DeepSeek centers on the fact that all data is stored in China, and all Chinese companies are legally bound to cooperate with Beijing’s surveillance efforts. In addition, the model has been found to aggressively censor anti-China information.

As TechCrunch points out, Microsoft does make DeepSeek available via its Azure AI service, but the company is able to keep customer data in the US as a result of DeepSeek’s open-source nature.