Swedish Government Offices Block ChatGPT and Claude, Steer Staff to Copilot
A.I. / news
Swedish Government Offices Block ChatGPT and Claude, Steer Staff to Copilot
The block starts Monday, Oct. 26, on work computers at Regeringskansliet, after the Tax Agency and the National Board of Institutional Care made similar moves.
Sweden's Government Offices, known as Regeringskansliet, will block ChatGPT and Claude on staff work computers from Monday, Oct. 26, according to a report by Sveriges Radio's news programme Ekot that SVT Nyheter relayed on Friday, Oct. 23.
Civil servants will be directed to Microsoft Copilot instead. SVT wrote that the Government Offices approved Copilot after reviewing the service and raising its security.
What staff lose on Monday
SVT's wording, in Swedish, is that Regeringskansliet's staff "inte längre kan nå AI-verktygen från sina tjänstedatorer". In English: staff can no longer reach the AI tools from their official computers.
The block covers two named products, OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude. SVT did not say whether it extends to Google's Gemini, Mistral's Le Chat or other chatbots. It also did not say whether the block applies to phones or to personal devices.
The report names no official and quotes no one from the Government Offices. SVT said it had contacted the Government Offices for comment and was still trying to reach them when it published.
Two agencies got there first
The Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket) and the Swedish National Board of Institutional Care (Statens institutionsstyrelse, Sis) have already introduced similar blocks, SVT reported. The Enforcement Authority (Kronofogden) is considering the same question.
| Body | Status in SVT's report |
|---|---|
| Government Offices (Regeringskansliet) | Block starts Oct. 26 |
| Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket) | Block already in place |
| National Board of Institutional Care (Sis) | Block already in place |
| Enforcement Authority (Kronofogden) | Considering a block |
The Daily Northern, which also covered the report on Oct. 23, listed the same three agencies and the same Copilot replacement. Neither account gives a reason for the ChatGPT and Claude block. The only explanation in either is that Copilot passed a security review.
Why Copilot is the exception
The single rule SVT quotes is that an AI service used by staff must be approved by the Government Offices. In Swedish: "Den AI-tjänsten ska vara godkänd av Regeringskansliet."
Copilot meets that test. ChatGPT and Claude, as of Friday, do not. The reports do not say whether OpenAI or Anthropic applied for approval, or what the review of Copilot found and changed.
OpenAI is meanwhile pushing ChatGPT's models through enterprise channels, from the Decisions API at ten cents per million tokens to a reported $30 billion raise, so the Swedish block lands on a vendor courting institutional buyers.
That gap matters for anyone tracking public-sector AI procurement. A review that ended with Copilot approved and two rival chatbots blocked is a procurement decision as much as a security one, and no document describing the criteria has been published in the two accounts reviewed here.
What is missing
The Sveriges Radio original could not be retrieved on Friday, so the account above rests on SVT's relay of it and on Daily Northern's rewrite of the same report. Ekot's own text may carry detail the relay left out, including a reason for the block.
The Government Offices had not responded to SVT's request for comment when it published. The block takes effect Monday, Oct. 26.
Sources
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