TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Azya Thornton on Mar 7, 2025

Gov. Bill Lee has announced that two artificial intelligence (AI) tools with ties to the Chinese Communist Party, Manus and DeepSeek, are now banned from Tennessee’s state network due to data privacy and cybersecurity concerns, according to a press release from the governor’s office. Tennessee is the first state in the nation to prohibit the Alibaba-owned Manus platform, which launched Thursday. Security risks cited include censorship, propaganda, bias, discrimination and data privacy threats. Following the statewide ban on DeepSeek, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti issued a consumer warning, urging Tennesseans to exercise caution and consider the risks of using DeepSeek over an AI product from a non-communist country. "DeepSeek creates real risk for both our country and our consumers," Skrmetti said.