Do You Know Where Your Data Goes When You Use AI Tools? – March 13

DWPA Staff on March 13, 2025

Let’s get back to LLM’s.  The timing is important because as federal agencies and contractors navigate a rapidly shifting AI landscape, secure, mission-aligned tools have never been more essential. With foreign-developed LLMs gaining traction, the need for trustworthy, U.S.-based solutions has never been clearer. GWAC NorthStar™, our AI-powered opportunity evaluation platform, was purpose-built for the federal contracting environment—prioritizing security, compliance, and operational insight from the ground up. Unlike opaque or foreign-hosted LLM offerings, NorthStar is grounded in U.S. infrastructure, aligned with rigorous federal security standards, and designed to deliver actionable intelligence without compromising sensitive data.

This distinction has become even more critical in light of recent developments surrounding Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, whose rapid rise has underscored the risks and complexities of adopting emerging LLM technologies for government use.

It’s important to note the implications of how DeepSeek rocked U.S. tech markets in January when the organization claimed its new AI model outperforms OpenAI’s ChatGPT at a fraction of the cost. AI-related stocks lost nearly $1 trillion in a single day. Thousands of Large Language Model (LLM) enthusiasts downloaded DeepSeek models to run locally, industry leaders quickly weighed in with their opinions, and controversies emerged.

Due to the concern for national security, U.S. lawmakers acted quickly to introduce the No DeepSeek on Government Devices Act, which proposes a ban on the use and download of the AI software tool on government devices The U.S. joins Australia and Taiwan in prohibiting the Chinese AI firm from operating in the states because of the application’s ability to store the data of U.S. users with the Chinese Communist Party for undetermined use.

The DeepSeek story follows a familiar pattern of business foul play often seen in China. When news seems too good to be true, it’s wise to stay cautious – unexpected twists are likely. However, there are a couple of truths from the DeepSeek story. This event may have exposed vulnerabilities in U.S. frontier AI firms regarding IP theft. And it demonstrates how stolen technology can be leveraged to meet market demands that major U.S. AI firms have overlooked.

Even if DeepSeek turned out to be a legitimate new LLM, federal agencies and their contractors need to consider security, compliance, and mission impact before using DeepSeek or any other LLM via their Application Programming Interface, a third-party hosted version such as in AWS or Azure, or by self-hosting the software. Regulations governing the distribution of Federal Contract Information or Controlled Unclassified Information need to be addressed so federal contractors can ensure they are not inadvertently violating compliance rules by using DeepSeek or similar AI tools.

When Deep Water Point & Associates developed NorthStar – our opportunity evaluation Software-as-a-Service powered by AI – we made information security a critical component to the solution’s proprietary process. NorthStar is a subscription-based service that automates the tedious, time-consuming process of collecting and evaluating task order solicitation announcements across your government contract vehicles. Our modern AI-architecture ingests hundreds of thousands of announcements annually and reads and analyzes all the attachments against the attributes you identify as important. Faster than a person can read one solicitation, NorthStar scores all your opportunities based on how they fit with your preferences, allowing you to spend more time on engaging with agencies helping to shape requirements and acquisition strategies, and more time preparing proposals.

NorthStar uses U.S. infrastructure, and we protect all subscriber information and CUI according to these standards and regulations:

  • NIST 800-218
  • NIST 800-171
  • NIST 800-53
  • DFAR 3052.204-72
  • CMMC Level 2

We use Microsoft Azure DevOps and Azure Cloud for development and adhere to the Cloud Native Security Controls Catalog and other applicable industry standards. Security policies apply to IT, production, and supply chain environments and are reviewed regularly for ongoing improvement. There’s no need to worry about federal data, or your user data, being stored and used by foreign adversaries.

Are you interested in finding better opportunities faster and winning more contracts?  Schedule a demo today and find out how GWAC NorthStar can revolutionize the way your company grows federal government sales.