India Asks Ministries to Pause Deployment of OpenAI and Anthropic AI Models

India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has advised government ministries to temporarily pause the deployment of artificial intelligence models from OpenAI and Anthropic for cybersecurity and related functions, according to a report by ThePrint. The directive follows meetings between representatives of both AI companies and government officials to propose the use of their models for state functions.

The MeitY communication, circulated as an office memorandum, requests ministries to refrain from prematurely implementing such AI models. While the exact number of ministries approached and the level of these meetings could not be independently confirmed, reports suggest engagement with multiple government departments.

This move is part of a broader government effort to regulate the use of external AI tools in official work. Previously, in June, several government organizations had issued internal directives prohibiting employees from using unapproved external AI platforms to process or share official, confidential, or sensitive information.

The latest advisory reflects the government's evolving stance on AI integration. Earlier, in January 2025, the Finance Ministry cautioned employees against using tools like ChatGPT due to confidentiality risks. However, the government later clarified to Parliament that there was no blanket ban, provided data security and confidentiality were maintained.

The directive was preceded by a warning from CERT-In, India's national computer emergency response team, which highlighted that advanced AI models could enable more sophisticated cyberattacks and shorten the window for patching vulnerabilities. The government is thus tightening oversight of frontier AI models within official systems while assessing the risks associated with external AI services in government operations.