A bipartisan pair of lawmakers are introducing a measure this week to ban Chinese artificial intelligence app DeepSeek from government devices, arguing the app “compromises American users’ sensitive data.”
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 House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
“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, a Chinese state-owned telecommunications company that is prohibited from operating in the United States. The study was reported by The Associated Press on Wednesday.
DeepSeek is based in China, but is technically not directly connected to the CCP. In China, however, companies are required to hand over data if requested by the government, further stoking fears over privacy and national security.
DeepSeek, a one-year-old startup, launched an AI model called R1 last month, which quickly drew comparisons to models offered by OpenAI or Google models. The app surged to the top of the app store shortly after its release and sent U.S. stocks plunging.
Gottheimer called the app a “five alarm national security fire,” in a statement Thursday.
“We must get to the bottom of DeepSeek’s malign activities. We simply can’t risk the CCP infiltrating the devices of our government officials and jeopardizing our national security,” he said.
Several lawmakers have expressed national security concerns about DeepSeek.
In a letter to national security adviser Mike Waltz last week, Reps. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) urged him to consider prohibiting the federal government from acquiring AI systems based on Chinese models, like DeepSeek. They also urged the administration to restrict the use of these models in critical infrastructure.
The concerns echo the worries that surrounded TikTok, which was first banned on government devices before Congress passed a bill last year that required its China-based company ByteDance to divest from the app or face a nationwide ban.
The law received wide bipartisan support and was signed by President Biden, giving ByteDance until January 19 to come to a divestiture agreement. ByteDance did not divest on time, and the app went dark for less than a day before President Trump announced plans to delay the ban and give the company more time.
The Hill reached out to DeepSeek and China Mobile for further comment.
