If you work at Sweden's Government Offices, Monday is going to feel a little different. From October 26, ChatGPT and Claude will stop opening on staff work computers, and Microsoft Copilot is where everyone gets pointed instead.
The news comes from Ekot, Sveriges Radio's news programme, which reported it on Friday, October 23.
Why block them?
Not because the tools themselves are considered dangerous. Digitalisation director Mikael Wettercrantz wrote on the staff intranet that using AI services without an agreement can have "consequences for our information security." The problem is the missing agreement, not the technology.
Copilot is a different story. The Government Offices reviewed it, raised its security settings, and kept it on the approved list.
It's not a total shutdown
Some staff will still be able to use ChatGPT and Claude through an AI-assistant platform the Government Offices built itself. The press office confirmed this to Ekot but, according to reports, didn't say who gets access or how many people that covers. It suggests the government still sees value in these models. It just wants them reached through a route it controls.
Not just one office
The Government Offices aren't alone. Ekot's survey found similar blocks at the Tax Agency (Skatteverket) and the National Board of Institutional Care (SiS), and the Enforcement Authority (Kronofogden) could be next. The Government Offices had already restricted the Chinese AI service DeepSeek.
This isn't a nationwide ban, either. It applies to staff work computers, so Swedish citizens and companies can keep using both services.
What's still unclear
Who keeps access. The in-house platform exists, but nobody has said who gets to use it.
Whether Claude is inside Copilot. Microsoft has added Claude models to Copilot, and the Government Offices hasn't said whether they're switched on in its own setup. If they are, the line between the "blocked" and "approved" tools is thinner than it looks.
Who's next. More agencies are looking at the same question, so this may not stay a three-agency story.
Why it matters
European governments have worried about AI data security since Italy's ChatGPT ban in 2023. Sweden's move shows where the conversation has landed: the question is no longer whether civil servants use AI, but which tools, under what agreements, and with what security behind them.
Source: Sveriges Radio / Ekot. Also reported by SVT Nyheter and Computer Sweden.
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