Bipartisan senators unveil bill banning DeepSeek on government devices

A group of bipartisan 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.” 

A pair of bipartisan lawmakers introduced similar legislation on the House side earlier this month, and several states, including Texas, New York and Virginia, have banned DeepSeek from state devices and networks.  

DeepSeek’s emergence has also threatened to upend the current consensus on AI development.

The Chinese startup claims it used a couple of thousand reduced capacity chips to build its latest model for a total cost of $5.6 million, a meager sum compared to the billions of dollars American tech firms are spending on infrastructure to develop AI. 

However, U.S. companies are projecting confidence despite the DeepSeek threat. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang touted DeepSeek on his company’s quarterly earnings call Wednesday as an “excellent innovation” that has “ignited global enthusiasm." 

The chipmaker, which has seen a meteoric rise in recent years amid the AI race, was hit particularly hard last month after DeepSeek was released, losing nearly $600 billion in value in a single day.