India’s finance ministry has directed its employees to refrain from using AI tools such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek for official purposes citing concerns regarding confidentiality, Reuters reported Wednesday (February 5).

“It has been determined that AI tools and AI apps (such as ChatGPT, DeepSeek etc.) in the office computers and devices pose risks for confidentiality of (government) data and documents,” said an advisory released by the ministry on January 29. Reuters quoted three finance ministry officials as saying that the advisory seen by the news agency was authentic and was issued internally.

The circular, approved by the finance secretary, has been distributed to government departments such as revenue, economic affairs, expenditure, public enterprises and financial services.

It was not clear whether similar guidelines have been issued for other ministries in India.

The move comes as ChatGPT maker OpenAI’s chief, Sam Altman, was due to touch down in India on Wednesday.

Notably, governments in Italy and Australia have also introduced similar restrictions for their employees due to security concerns.

Altman’s visit to India comes amidst an intense legal battle triggered by domestic news agency ANI for alleged use of copyright content. Several other publishers and news organisations have now joined forces to oppose OpenAI in courts. Meanwhile, OpenAI maintains that its models used public information for training purposes, which was in line with fair use principles.

Regarding its legal challenges in India, the US-based AI giant argues that Indian courts don’t have jurisdiction over content matters given it “does not maintain any servers or data centres” in the country.

As the company faces similar legal challenges abroad, it has struck deals with news publishers such as Time magazine, the Financial Times, Business Insider-owner Axel Springer, France’s Le Monde and Spain’s Prisa Media. OpenAI has not signed any such contract with Indian media outlets yet.

(With inputs from agencies)

Link to article – 

Indian finance ministry bans ChatGPT, DeepSeek for employees amid data security concerns