Guwahati: The Ministry of Finance has issued a directive advising government officials to “strictly avoid” the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek, on official devices due to concerns over the confidentiality of government data and documents.
The Department of Expenditure (DoE) released the circular on January 29, 2025, emphasizing that AI applications on office computers could compromise sensitive information.
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The order, signed by Pradeep Kumar Singh, Joint Secretary of the DoE, stated, “It has been determined that AI tools and AI Apps (such as ChatGPT, DeepSeek, etc.) in office computers and devices pose risks for the confidentiality of government data and documents. Therefore, it is advised that the use of AI tools/AI Apps on office devices be strictly avoided. This should be communicated to all employees.” The directive was issued with the approval of the Finance Secretary.
This advisory coincides with the visit of Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, who is currently in India to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Additionally, DeepSeek, an AI tool developed in China, was launched in January 2025.
On January 30, Union Minister for Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw addressed concerns about data privacy in an interview with The Hindu, stating that DeepSeek, being an open-source model, would soon be hosted on Indian servers. “We are very soon going to host DeepSeek on Indian servers, similar to how we have hosted Llama, to address data privacy parameters. The team has already made significant progress on this, and hosting will commence soon,” Vaishnaw said.
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Interestingly, the DoE’s circular follows a training session organized by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) in October 2024.
This session, aimed at officials from the rank of Joint Secretary and below, including Directors and Deputy Secretaries, focused on the use of ‘ChatGPT-4 Plus.’ The training took place from October 14-16 in seven batches.
It remains unclear whether other ministries or central government departments have issued similar advisories restricting the use of AI tools.