North Indy News

U.S. Senators Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Ted Budd (R-N.C.) have asked the Department of Commerce to investigate DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence over concerns that it may be aiding China’s military and intelligence operations. The senators sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, requesting a thorough review of security risks posed by DeepSeek AI and other Chinese open-source models.

The letter states: “We write to you regarding concerning security vulnerabilities and the potential compromising of American personal and enterprise data through the use of DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence (AI) reasoning models. 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.

“These allegations are deeply troubling. DeepSeek’s R1’s model release in late January demonstrated the aptitude of People’s Republic of China (PRC) national AI talent and the progress their home-grown models have made relative to leading U.S. products. 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 […]

“The U.S. government has previously recognized the threats posed by the wide-spread adoption of certain PRC technologies. For example, 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 have requested an evaluation by the Commerce Department into whether Chinese open-source models like DeepSeek's R1 might contain backdoors or other vulnerabilities, as well as a briefing on any findings for Congress. They also want more details about how cybersecurity measures will be included in future work at the Center for AI Standards and Innovation, along with an assessment on how some AI models might be bypassing export controls on semiconductors.

Senators Bill Cassidy (R-La.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), John Husted (R-Ohio), and John Curtis (R-Utah) joined Young and Budd in signing the letter.

The full text of their letter can be found online.