The measure, called “No DeepSeek on Government Devices Act,” will be introduced on Friday by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Darin LaHood (R-Ill.), who both serve on the House Intelligence Committee.
“The technology race with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is not one the United States can afford to lose,” LaHood said in a statement Thursday.
“The national security threat that DeepSeek — a CCP-affiliated company — poses to the United States is alarming. DeepSeek’s generative AI program acquires the data of U.S. users and stores the information for unidentified use by the CCP.”
The lawmakers pointed to a security research study published on Wednesday that found DeepSeek’s website contains computer code with the potential to send user login information to China Mobile.
The Chinese state-owned telecommunications company is prohibited from operating in the United States. The study was reported by The Associated Press on Wednesday.
DeepSeek is based in China, where companies are required to hand over data if requested by the government, further stoking fears over privacy and national security.
The one-year-old startup launched an AI model called R1 last month, which quickly drew comparisons to models offered by OpenAI or Google. The app surged to the top of Apple's App Store shortly after its release and sent U.S. stocks plunging.
Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.
