By David Shepardson
(Reuters) -A group of seven Republican U.S. senators on Tuesday asked the Commerce Department to evaluate potential data security vulnerabilities posed by Chinese open-source AI models like DeepSeek.
The senators led by Ted Budd and include Jon Husted, Todd Young, John Cornyn, John Curtis, Bill Cassidy and Marsha Blackburn want the Commerce Department to detail any threats from data collected by applications being fed back to Chinese servers or whether the AI models are feeding American personal or enterprise data to China's military or to companies with Chinese military ties.
The letter also asks for details on "any findings related to how Chinese open-source models may have improperly accessed export controlled semiconductors or violated use terms of U.S. models to advance their capabilities."
Senators have introduced bipartisan pieces of legislation to prohibit DeepSeek from operating on any federal government devices or networks and to prohibit federal contractors from using DeepSeek in government contracts.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in January it appeared DeepSeek had misappropriated U.S. AI technology and vowed to impose restrictions.
The Commerce Department did not immediately comment.
In June, Reuters reported DeepSeek is aiding China's military and intelligence operations, citing a senior U.S. official, adding that the Chinese tech startup sought to use Southeast Asian shell companies to access high-end semiconductors that cannot be shipped to China under U.S. rules.
The U.S. conclusions reflect a growing conviction in Washington that the capabilities behind the rapid rise of one of China's flagship AI enterprises may have been exaggerated and relied heavily on U.S. technology.
Hangzhou-based DeepSeek sent shockwaves through the technology world in January, saying its artificial intelligence reasoning models were on par with or better than U.S. industry-leading models at a fraction of the cost.
(Reporting by David Shepardson, Editing by Franklin Paul and Alistair Bell)
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