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(ALBANY, N.Y.) — New York government employees are barred from downloading DeepSeek’s artificial intelligence application onto state devices due to security concerns, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Monday.

The DeepSeek chatbot, known as R1, responds to user queries just like its U.S.-based counterparts, such as the popular ChatGPT. But the China-based DeepSeek has code hidden in its programming that has the built-in capability to send user data directly to the Chinese government, experts told ABC News.

“Public safety is my top priority,” Hochul said in a statement. “New York will continue fighting to combat cyber threats, ensure the privacy and safety of our data, and safeguard against state-sponsored censorship.”

Last year, Hochul issued guidance for the “responsible use of AI” in New York’s government to help improve operations while “protecting privacy, managing risk and promoting accountability, safety and equity,” according to the governor’s office.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., who serves on the House Intelligence Committee, told ABC News he thinks DeepSeek should be banned “from all government devices immediately.”

“No one should be allowed to download it onto their device. And I think we have to inform the public,” he said.

Gottheimer and Darin LaHood, R-Ill., introduced a bipartisan bill to ban DeepSeek from all government devices last week.

“The Chinese Communist Party has made it abundantly clear that it will exploit any tool at its disposal to undermine our national security, spew harmful disinformation, and collect data on Americans. Now, we have deeply disturbing evidence that they are using DeepSeek to steal the sensitive data of U.S. citizens. This is a five alarm national security fire,” Gottheimer said in a statement.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott banned DeepSeek on government devices, the first states to do so, on Jan. 31.

President Donald Trump was asked on Friday whether he believed DeepSeek was a national security threat, to which he replied, “No, I mean, I think it’s happening. It’s a technology that’s happening. … It’ll be a lot less expensive, the AI, we’re talking about, will be a lot less expensive that people originally thought. That’s a good thing. I view that as a very good development, not a bad development.”

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(PHILADELPHIA) — Dozens of people were arrested in Philadelphia after fans took to the streets to celebrate the Eagles’ Super Bowl victory, police said.

Philadelphia police reported nearly 50 arrests following the Eagles’ win against the Kansas City Chiefs in New Orleans on Sunday.

Among those, five people were arrested for assault on police, authorities said. There were also two arrests for aggravated assault, one for recklessly endangering another person and one for misdemeanor disorderly conduct in the third degree, police said.

Additionally, police said 29 people were arrested for disorderly conduct and issued code violation notices.

There were eight arrests for vandalism incidents, including against four city sanitation trucks, two banks and two retail stores, police said. The businesses were all in Center City on Walnut Street.

Amid the raucous celebrations, fans were captured passing a downed traffic light pole on a packed street, and a large fire was seen near an intersection.

The Super Bowl victory celebrations will continue on Friday, when the city hosts the parade to mark the Eagles’ commanding 40-22 win over the Chiefs.

Police similarly reported disorderly conduct and other incidents after the Eagles won the NFC championship game in Philadelphia on Jan. 26, which sent them to the Super Bowl.

Thirty-one people were issued citations for disorderly conduct or failure to disperse, police said at the time.

Two shootings, a stabbing and a car crash that injured multiple pedestrians were also among several “significant” incidents reported amid the NFC championship celebrations, police said.

Tragically, an 18-year-old Temple University student died after he fell from a light pole while celebrating the win, officials said.

ABC News’ Alexandra Faul contributed to this report.

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(DETROIT) — A 13-year-old was apprehended for allegedly targeting young girls in a string of home invasions in Michigan, authorities said.

The teen was allegedly involved in nine break-ins in Pontiac and two in Detroit, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said.

On Feb. 4, the suspect — who was wearing a ski mask and was armed with a knife — choked a sleeping 10-year-old girl, according to the sheriff’s office. The girl screamed, and then her mom saw the suspect run down the stairs and out of the house, the sheriff’s office said.

“This is the worst nightmare for any parent — that somebody might be trying to climb in through a window to get after their kids, especially a young teenage girl,” Bouchard said at a news conference.

There were few physical injuries, but Bouchard stressed the immense “emotional trauma” of being targeted in bed.

The break-ins began two years ago, Bouchard said. The suspect allegedly looked for unlocked windows and had a knife during several incidents, he said.

Charges are not yet clear. The 13-year-old’s parent has been cooperative, Bouchard said.

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(NEW YORK) — Two major winter storms are bearing down on the U.S. this week and are expected to bring some of the highest snow totals of the season for cities including Chicago and Washington, D.C.

The first storm, which spans from Colorado to Delaware, will hit Tuesday morning through Wednesday morning.

By 7 a.m. ET Tuesday, heavy rain is expected from Dallas to Nashville, Tennessee, while snow will be falling from Louisville, Kentucky, to Richmond, Virginia.

The snow will arrive in D.C. by noon on Tuesday and may last for over 12 hours. Some light snow may make it as far north as Philadelphia.

Four to 6 inches of snow is possible for the D.C. and Baltimore region.

Meanwhile, the heavy rain in the South may cause flash flooding.

By the time that first storm leaves the East Coast, the second storm will have already started in the Midwest.

At 7 a.m. ET Wednesday, widespread snow is expected from Colorado to Iowa to Missouri, while heavy rain will be falling from Houston to Louisiana.

In Chicago, the snow will begin around 9 a.m. Wednesday and may last for over 12 hours. Five to 9 inches of snow is possible in the Windy City.

Then, in the East, a mix of rain and freezing rain expected in D.C. and Philadelphia beginning after 5 p.m. Wednesday and continuing overnight.

In New York City and Boston, the snow is forecast to start Wednesday night and then change to rain overnight.

Both storms combined will result in hefty snow totals in the Midwest and the Mid-Atlantic, and potentially flooding rain for a wide swath of the South.

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(AUSTIN, Texas) — An American Airlines flight was delayed last week after the crew alerted authorities about suspicious activity on the plane “regarding the name of a WiFi hotspot involving the word ‘bomb.'”

American Airlines Flight 2863 was scheduled to travel from Austin, Texas, to Charlotte, North Carolina, with a planned departure time of 1:42 p.m.

Bruce Steen, 63 years old, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was one of the passengers aboard the flight amid the incident at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

Steen told ABC News that he was traveling home from a meeting in Austin on Feb. 7 when the incident occurred.

He said that he was seated toward the front of the plane and saw a young man walking up to a flight attendant with a tablet to show her something. The flight attendant immediately called the cockpit, Steen said, and soon the pilot announced that the flight would be returning to the gate due to an “administrative issue.”

In the meantime, the crew had reported the incident to the Austin Police Department and the Department of Aviation.

Steen said that after a few minutes, the pilot came back on and announced that “somebody renamed their hotspot.” Steen said the crew said the hotspot was called: “There is a bomb on the flight.”

A lieutenant from Austin PD then came onboard and told passengers the renaming was not funny, Steen told ABC News, recalling that the official said: “If this is a joke, please raise your hand now, because we can deal with the practical joke differently than if this, if we have to do a full blown investigation of what’s going on here.”

Steen said no one raised their hands — and everyone was escorted off the plane in groups by the Austin PD.

At one point, every passenger had to show their hotspot to police officers, Steen said.

The Transportation Security Administration said in a statement to ABC News that the agency and its partners in the transportation sector “take bomb threats very seriously.”

“All passengers and their checked baggage were rescreened,” the TSA confirmed.

A dog sniffed all the luggage and the police checked the baggage compartment on the plane, Steen told ABC News.

After the aircraft and luggage were swept for explosives, the aircraft was cleared by the Austin PD.

The flight departed around 6:15 p.m. local time, according to airport officials.

Austin Airport said there were no significant impacts to airport or airline operations, other than the delayed flight that was involved in the incident.

The Austin Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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(BOSTON) — A federal judge in Boston Monday will consider whether to block President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk from carrying out their unprecedented plan to buy out tens of thousands of federal employees.

Three federal employee unions — with the support of 20 Democratic attorneys general — have argued that the Office of Personnel Management’s deferred resignation offer is an “unlawful ultimatum” to force the resignation of government workers under the “threat of mass termination.”

“OPM’s Fork Directive is a sweeping and stunningly arbitrary action to solicit blanket resignations of federal workers,” wrote lawyers for the American Federation of Government Employees, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and the National Association of Government Employees. “Defendants have not even argued — nor could they — that the Fork Directive was the product of rational or considered decision-making.”

The buyout offer, part of Trump’s effort to trim the size of government through Musk’s newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, was sent out under the subject line “Fork in the Road” — the same language Musk used when he slashed jobs at Twitter after taking over that company in 2022.

In court, the Trump administration has described the buyout as one of the first steps in the president’s plan to “transform the federal workforce,” arguing that any further delay of the buyout would cause “remarkably disruptive and inequitable repercussions.”

Monday’s hearing comes less than two weeks after more than two million government employees received the “Fork in the Road” email from the Office of Personnel Management, offering full pay and benefits until September for any federal employee who accepted a deferred resignation by Feb. 6.

Just hours ahead of Thursday’s deadline for employees to accept the offer, U.S. District Judge George O’Toole Jr. — who was nominated to the bench by President Bill Clinton — temporarily blocked the offer until Monday so he could consider issuing a temporary restraining offer pausing the order.

“I enjoined the defendants from taking any action to implement the so-called ‘Fork Directive’ pending the completion of briefing and oral argument on the issues,” Judge O’Toole said in his ruling. “I believe that’s as far as I want to go today.”

The Trump administration, in response, “extended” the deadline for the offer, which more than 65,000 federal employees have already taken.

“We are grateful to the judge for extending the deadline so more federal workers who refuse to show up to the office can take the Administration up on this very generous, once-in-a-lifetime offer,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said last week.

The unions who brought the lawsuit argued that Trump exceeded his authority as president with the offer, which they described as a “slapdash resignation program.”

According to the plaintiffs, Trump’s offer violates federal law, lacks congressionally appropriated funding, and does not offer employees reassurance that the president would follow through with the offer. Their claim in part relies on a federal law from the 1940s called the Administrative Procedure Act that governs how federal agencies create and enforce rules.

“In the tech universe, ‘move fast and break things’ is a fine motto in part because they’re not playing with the public’s money, and it’s expected that most initiatives are going to fail,” Loyola Marymount law professor Justin Leavitt told ABC News. “Congress knows that, so in 1946 they basically said, ‘When agencies do stuff … they have to be careful about it. They’ve got to consider all aspects of the problem.”

The plaintiffs also argued that the buyout is unlawful because it relies on funding that Congress has yet to appropriate, violating the Antideficiency Act.

“Defendants’ ultimatum divides federal workers into two groups: (1) those who submit their resignations to OPM for a promised period of pay without the requirement to work, and (2) those who have not and are therefore subject to threat of mass termination,” the lawsuit said.

Lawyers for the federal government have pushed back on those claims, arguing that Trump has the legal authority to provide the buyout for employees within the federal branch, and that any further delay would do more harm than good.

“Extending the deadline for the acceptance of deferred resignation on its very last day will markedly disrupt the expectations of the federal workforce, inject tremendous uncertainty into a program that scores of federal employees have already availed themselves of, and hinder the Administration’s efforts to reform the federal workforce,” DOJ attorney Joshua E. Gardner wrote in a filing last week.

Judge O’Toole will consider issuing a temporary restraining order that would block enforcement of the offer for as long as two weeks.

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