A bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation Thursday to ban Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) startup DeepSeek’s products from government devices and networks.
The bill, introduced by Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Jon Husted (R-Ohio) and Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), comes as DeepSeek’s rapid rise in popularity has sparked data privacy and national security concerns.
“As the artificial intelligence landscape continues to rapidly expand, the U.S. must take steps to ensure Americans’ data and government systems remain protected against platforms — like DeepSeek — that are linked to our adversaries,” Rosen said in a statement.
DeepSeek exploded onto the scene last month with its new R1 model, which it claims can perform on par with OpenAI’s latest models. Its app quickly surged to the top of Apple’s App Store.
However, the AI startup is based in China, raising questions about whether the Chinese government could potentially access or manipulate U.S. user data.
“DeepSeek is a tool that perpetuates Communist China’s agenda—full stop,” Husted said in a statement. “It exposes Americans’ data to our adversary’s government, lies to its users, and exploits American workers’ AI advances. We can’t afford for U.S. officials to play into Beijing’s hands by hosting this hostile bot on their devices.”