Attorney General Knudsen leads 21-state coalition urging congress to ban China-based AI platform on all government devices

HELENA – Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen led a coalition of 21 attorneys general urging Congressional leadership to pass the “No DeepSeek on Government Devices Act,” which will prohibit government devices from downloading and using the Chinese Communist Party’s DeepSeek artificial intelligence software.

In a letter sent to congressional leadership Thursday, Attorney General Knudsen outlined the threat that DeepSeek poses to the United States. The platform has the capability to send user data directly to the CCP and users may unknowingly be creating accounts in China, making their identities and online behavior visible to the Chinese government.

China continues to be one of the biggest national security threats facing the United States. In 2023, a Chinese spy balloon was caught flying over Montana. In December, the U.S. Treasury Department was notified it had been hacked by China and gained access to employees’ workstations and stole data from a committee that reviews foreign investments for national security risks. In November, it was announced that China had been conducting cyberespionage aimed at Americans who work in government and politics.

“DeepSeek is a trojan horse sent in by the Chinese Communist Party to spy on our country. It poses a serious national security risk and should not be allowed on government devices,” Attorney General Knudsen said. “I have already banned the platform at the Montana Department of Justice because we know DeepSeek is tracking users’ search history, IP addresses, and keystroke patterns then giving that information to the Chinese government. China continues to be one of the biggest threats facing our nation. I urge Congress to pass this legislation to ban DeepSeek on government devices.”

DeepSeek has already been blocked on government devices in Canada, Australia, South Korea, and Taiwan. While Italy has blocked the program across the country. DeepSeek is also linked to China Mobile which has close ties to the Chinese military and has been sanctioned by the U.S. government.

“Congress should protect America’s national security by banning DeepSeek on government devices. If it has not already taken action to administratively ban DeepSeek, we trust that the Trump Administration would swiftly implement this ban to protect our national security from America’s ‘potent and dangerous’ adversary,” the attorneys general wrote.

Attorney General Knudsen is committed to protecting Montanans from CCP efforts and technology used to spy on them. He has banned DeepSeek on Montana Department of Justice devices. His office wrote and helped pass the law that banned the Chinese spying tool TikTok in Montana during the 2023 legislative session. In December, he led a brief asking the Supreme Court to uphold the national TikTok ban.

Click here to read the letter.