Doha: The administration of US President Donald Trump is considering banning the Chinese AI model DeepSeek from government devices over national security concerns.

According to Qatar News Agency, local officials are worried about how DeepSeek handles user data, which the company claims is stored on servers in China. The administration is also exploring a potential ban on the chatbot from app stores and restrictions on how US cloud service providers can offer DeepSeek AI models to their customers.

Low-cost DeepSeek models triggered a major sell-off in global stock markets last January, as investors feared their availability could threaten current AI market leaders. On Thursday, a group of 21 state attorneys general urged Congress to pass legislation prohibiting government agencies from downloading and using the DeepSeek AI program on official devices.