Citing security concerns, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt has banned the use of the artificial intelligence product DeepSeek on all state-owned electronic devices.
Stitt announced the ban on Friday. He said the decision came after the state Office of Management and Enterprise Services conducted a review of DeepSeek this month. DeepSeek is a Chinese AI startup that became the most downloaded app in the U.S. in January 2025.
DeepSeek’s connections to China have led to concerns from U.S. leaders. On March 3, Stitt asked the OMES to look into the issue. In a letter to Stitt, the OMES cited security concerns, compliance issues, susceptibility to adversarial manipulation and a lack of robust data safeguards as reasons for keeping DeepSeek off state-owned devices.
“We’re not going to take chances when it comes to protecting Oklahomans’ data,” Stitt said. “DeepSeek has too many security risks, and we’re not about to let foreign adversaries have access to our state’s information. This is about keeping Oklahoma safe and making smart decisions for our future.”
The OMES said DeepSeek’s user data is stored in China, which violates the Oklahoma state chief information officer’s data storage standard, and that DeepSeek’s “lack of compliance” could potentially expose state data “to bad actors within the Chinese Communist Party.”
The agency’s study also found that DeepSeek “has demonstrated a high vulnerability to adversarial manipulation” and that it does not have a layered security architecture, “leaving it open to security breaches and ethical violations.”
Oklahoma isn’t the only state concerned about DeepSeek. Reuters has reported that Virginia, Texas and New York are among others that have done so, and that a group of 21 state attorneys general have joined to ask Congress to address the issue.
Stitt has made previous efforts to try and reduce Chinese influence in Oklahoma. Last June, he issued an executive order that, in part, declared it was the policy of his administration to exercise foresight and make “reasonable preparations for a potential regional or global conflict centered on the Indo-Pacific which could involve attacks upon the United States and her allies, asymmetrical attacks on the American homeland, and the disruption or complete severing of supply chains between the State and its vendors and the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of China, or other countries in the Indo-Pacific.”
That order said his administration would “(p)roactively protect against all forms of Chinese Communist Party malign influences.”