Norway’s parliament bans DeepSeek chatbot over security concerns

Norway's parliament, the Storting, has imposed a ban on the use of the Chinese-developed DeepSeek chatbot by its staff, including Members of Parliament (MPs) and other employees.

This decision comes after a recommendation from the National Security Service, Caliber.Az reports per foreign media.

The move aims to protect the parliament’s information security, with authorities expressing concerns about potential risks posed by the AI-powered chatbot. As part of the directive, all parliamentary staff have been advised to exercise increased caution when using DeepSeek and similar technologies.

The decision underscores the growing scrutiny of foreign-developed AI tools in government environments, with several countries raising alarms over potential security vulnerabilities. The Norwegian Parliament has emphasized that safeguarding its internal data and systems remains a top priority in light of evolving cybersecurity threats.

In recent weeks, several countries have moved to ban or restrict China's breakout artificial intelligence (AI) app DeepSeek-R1, citing privacy and security concerns.

The startup caused a stir in the global AI industry last month with the launch of a low-cost chatbot said to be on par with or better than existing options.

And DeepSeek said it spent only US$5.6 million to develop the model - a fraction of the billions spent by industry-leading competitors in the United States.

DeepSeek's AI Assistant eventually overtook OpenAI's ChatGPT as the top-rated free app on Apple's US app store.

That same day, nearly US$600 billion was wiped off the market value of US chipmaker Nvidia, whose semiconductors power the AI industry. It was a record one-day loss for any company on Wall Street.

By Vafa Guliyeva