Microsoft has taken the step of banning its employees from utilizing the DeepSeek artificial intelligence due to concerns regarding data storage in China and the potential for influence from local propaganda. This was revealed by Vice President Brad Smith during a hearing in the U.S. Senate, as reported by TechCrunch.

Smith explained that DeepSeek is also unavailable in the Microsoft Store because user data is stored on servers in China and could be subject to local authorities under Chinese law.

Despite the ban, Microsoft had previously provided access to the DeepSeek R1 AI model through its Azure cloud platform. Smith stated that Microsoft managed to modify the DeepSeek AI model to mitigate any harmful side effects.

This marks the first public statement from Microsoft regarding restrictions on DeepSeek, although other companies and countries have implemented similar bans. The DeepSeek application is seen as a competitor to Copilot, Microsoft's own AI solution for online search.