Cybersecurity Policy Report, Action Needed Before Chinese AI Becomes Embedded in Apps, Senators Warn, (Aug 5, 2025)
The Chinese government apparently plans to embed its homegrown—and untrustworthy—artificial intelligence technology in applications and services that will become widely used, and the U.S. government should nip that effort in the bud, according to seven Senate Republicans.
The release of the DeepSeek AI chatbot in January demonstrated China’s ability to develop sophisticated AI tools despite having limited access to the semiconductors required for such endeavors, the senators noted in a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
But U.S. officials and researchers warn that DeepSeek likely shares user data with the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), they said.
“Recent reporting states that U.S. officials believe that DeepSeek ‘has willingly provided and will likely continue to provide support to China’s military and intelligence operations.’ The article further states that U.S. officials allege that DeepSeek is sharing user information and statistics with Beijing’s surveillance apparatus,” they said, citing a Reuters report.
“These allegations are deeply troubling,” the senators told Mr. Lutnick. “The Trump Administration has rightly emphasized winning the AI competition against the PRC, and the development of AI use case applications for businesses and consumers is an important facet of that competition.
“Ensuring that such applications are secure and not prone to leaking secure information and malign exploitation is paramount,” they added.
They likened the situation to the way Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. became a top supplier of affordable communications equipment, gaining a worldwide presence in communications networks before concerns about its ties to the PRC led to “rip-and-replace” efforts in the U.S.
“Congress funded a multi-billion program to remove Huawei telecommunications hardware from American networks after it was determined that such hardware could contain backdoors for PRC espionage,” the senators noted.
They asked Mr. Lutnick “to prevent a similar situation” by identifying “any potential backdoors or vulnerabilities” posed by DeepSeek and other Chinese AI technology.
The Commerce Department should, among other things, “work with relevant agencies with expertise in cyber security, data protection, and national security to investigate how U.S. businesses and persons could be harmed” by applications and services that incorporate DeepSeek or other untrustworthy AI technologies, they said.
They also asked for a briefing on “threats posed by Chinese open-source models as soon as practical.”
The letter was signed by Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.), Tedd Budd (R., N.C.), Bill Cassidy (R., La.), John Cornyn (R., Texas), John Curtis (R., Utah), Jon Husted (R., Ohio), and Todd Young (R., Ind.).
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