US lawmakers introduce bill to ban DeepSeek from government devices.
In a surprising twist, US lawmakers on Thursday introduced a bill to ban Chinese artificial intelligence program DeepSeek from being used on government devices over concerns about user data security.
The bill was proposed by Representative Josh Gottheimer, a New Jersey Democrat, along with Darin LaHood, an Illinois Republican, citing an “alarming threat to US national security” and warning of “direct ties” between DeepSeek and the Chinese government.
The bill comes after a Wednesday report by Feroot Security, a US cybersecurity firm, found that the AI model contains hidden code capable of transmitting user data to China Mobile, a state-owned telecoms firm.
Also read: Trump warns DeepSeek should be ‘wakeup call’ for America’s AI industry
Earlier, the Chinese startup DeekSeek surprised the global AI industry last month with the launch of its low-cost, high-quality chatbot, which shook the lead the United States and other countries had in the ongoing race to develop the technology.
“The Chinese Communist Party has made it abundantly clear that it will exploit any tool at its disposal to undermine our national security, spew harmful disinformation, and collect data on Americans,” Gottheimer said in a statement.
LaHood, calling DeepSeek a “CCP-affiliated company,” said that “under no circumstances” can it be allowed to “obtain sensitive government or personal data.”
Also read: Who is Liang Wenfeng, the founder of DeepSeek?
The legislation in the House of Representatives comes as South Korean ministries and police said they were blocking DeepSeek’s access to their computers, after the company did not respond to a data watchdog request about how it manages user information.
Australia bans DeepSeek
Australia has also banned DeepSeek from all government devices on the advice of security agencies, while France and Italy have raised concerns about DeepSeek’s data practice.
Separately, video-sharing app TikTok is facing down a US law that orders the company to divest from its Chinese owner, ByteDance, or be banned in the United States.
