US Lawmakers Introduce Bill to Ban Chinese AI in Federal Agencies Amid Escalating Tech Rivalry

US lawmakers introduce bill to bar Chinese AI in US government agencies

SAN FRANCISCO, June 25 (Reuters) - A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday planned to introduce a bill in both houses of Congress that would bar U.S. executive agencies from using artificial intelligence models developed in China, including those from DeepSeek. The introduction of the bill, dubbed the "No Adversarial AI Act," comes after Reuters reported that a senior U.S. official has concluded that DeepSeek is aiding China's military and intelligence operations and has had access to "large volumes" of Nvidia's (NVDA.O), opens new tab chips. DeepSeek shook the technology world in January with claims that it had developed an AI model that rivaled those from U.S. firms such as ChatGPT creator OpenAI at much lower cost. Since then, some U.S. companies and government agencies have banned the use of DeepSeek over data security concerns, and President Donald Trump's administration has mulled banning its use on U.S. government devices. The bill introduced Wednesday into the U.S. House of Representatives by Representative John Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican who chairs the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, an Illinois Democrat who is the ranking member on the committee, would create a permanent framework for barring the use of all Chinese AI models from U.S. executive agencies, as well as those from Russia, Iran and North Korea. The bill would require the Federal Acquisition Security Council to create a list of AI models developed in those countries and regularly update it. Federal agencies would not be able to buy or use those AI technologies without an exemption, such as for carrying out research, from the U.S. Congress or the Office of Management and Budget. The law also contains a provision that can be used to get technologies off the list with proof that they are not controlled or influenced by a foreign adversary of the U.S. "The U.S. must draw a hard line: hostile AI systems have no business operating inside our government," Moolenaar said in a statement. "This legislation creates a permanent firewall to keep adversary AI out of our most sensitive networks - where the cost of compromise is simply too high." Also co-sponsoring the bill in the House are Representative Ritchie Torres, a New York Democrat, and Representative Darin LaHood, an Illinois Republication. In the U.S. Senate, the bill will be led by Senators Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, and Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat. Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Christopher Cushing Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab Suggested Topics:Artificial Intelligence

Bipartisan bill seeks to ban Chinese AI from federal agencies, as U.S. vows to win the AI race

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A bipartisan group of lawmakers on Wednesday vowed to keep Chinese artificial intelligence systems out of federal agencies while pledging to ensure the U.S. will prevail against China in the global AI competition. "We are in a new Cold War, and AI is the strategic technology at the center," Rep. John Moolenaar, the Republican chair of the House Select Committee on China, said as he opened a hearing on the matter. "The future balance of power may very well be determined by who leads in AI." The hearing on Capitol Hill comes about five months after a Chinese technology start-up called DeekSeek introduced an AI model that rivaled platforms from OpenAI and Google in performance, but cost only a fraction to build. This raised concerns that China was catching up to U.S. despite restrictions on chips and other key technologies used to develop AI. The ever-tighter race is now a central part of the U.S.-China rivalry. And so much is at stake that the U.S. must win, witnesses told the congressional panel. The two countries are "in a long-term techno-security competition that will determine the shape of the global political order for the coming years," said Thomas Mahnken, president and CEO of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. Jack Clark, co-founder and head of policy at Anthropic, told the committee that AI has built-in values. "I know that AI systems are a reflection of the societies that are built from. AI built in democracies will lead to better technology for all of humanity. AI built in authoritarian nations will... be inescapably intertwined and imbued with authoritarianism," Clark said. "We must take decisive action to ensure America prevails." Earlier this year, Chris Lehane, OpenAI's head of global affairs, told reporters in Paris that the U.S. and China were the only two countries in the world that could build AI at scale. The competition, which he described as one between democratic AI and autocratic AI, is "very real and very serious," and the stakes are "enormous," he said, for "the global rails of AI will be built by one of those two countries." The 2025 AI Index Report by Stanford University's Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence center has the U.S. in the lead in producing top AI models. But the report notes China is rapidly closing the performance gap, reaching near parity in 2024 on several major benchmarks. It also shows that China leads in AI publications and patents. At the hearing, Clark urged the lawmakers to maintain and strengthen export controls of advanced chips to China. "This competition fundamentally runs on compute," he said. The U.S. must control the flow of powerful chips to China, Clark said, "or else you're giving them the tools they will need to build powerful AI to harm American interests." Mark Beall, Jr., president of government affairs at The AI Policy Network, said there are "a number of very glaring gaps" in the U.S. export controls that have allowed China to obtain controlled chips. Lawmakers earlier this year introduced a bill to track such chips to ensure they would not be diverted to the wrong hands. In another legislative step, Republican and Democratic lawmakers in both the House and the Senate on Wednesday introduced a bill to ban Chinese AI systems in the federal government. "The U.S. must draw a hard line: hostile AI systems have no business operating inside our government," Moolenaar said. The No Adversarial AI Act, as proposed, seeks to identify AI systems developed by foreign adversaries and ban their use in the U.S. government, with exceptions for use in research and counter terrorism.

New bill could see DeepSeek and Chinese AI models banned in government departments

Artificial intelligence models built in China, Iran, Russia, or the Democratic People's Republic of Korea could soon be banned from use in government agencies thanks to the newly introduced 'No Adversarial AI Act'. Lawmakers introduced this bill in both the House and Senate by Michigan Rep. John Moolenaar, a Republican and Chair of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and Democrat Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, a ranking member on the committee, CyberNews reports. "We are in a new Cold War -- and AI is the strategic technology at the center. The CCP doesn't innovate -- it steals, scales, and subverts," argues Moolenaar. The Chinese DeepSeek model rose to popularity quickly as a rival to existing western AI models - costing a fraction of the cost to make, and achieving impressively similar results. However, DeepSeek, as with all AI models, comes with privacy concerns, and lawmakers argue that this puts data at risk, especially if those users enter information relevant to work within government organizations. "From IP theft and chip smuggling to embedding AI in surveillance and military platforms, the Chinese Communist Party is racing to weaponize this technology. We must draw a clear line: US government systems cannot be powered by tools built to serve authoritarian interests," said Moolenaar. If this new bill passes, all government agencies will join the list of private companies and government departments which have also banned DeepSeek, such as Microsoft, the US Department of Commerce, and the US Navy. The new bill will require the US Federal Acquisition Security Council to create and maintain a publicly available list of AI models developed in the listed "adversarial nations" - and government agencies would not be able to use or purchase any of these models without an exemption from the US Congress - most likely in the cases of research or testing.

Bipartisan bill aims to ban Chinese AI from federal agencies

"We are in a new Cold War, and AI is the strategic technology at the center," Rep. John Moolenaar, the Republican chair of the House Select Committee on China, said as he opened a hearing on the matter. "The future balance of power may very well be determined by who leads in AI." The hearing on Capitol Hill comes about five months after a Chinese technology start-up called DeepSeek introduced an AI model that rivaled platforms from OpenAI and Google in performance, but cost only a fraction to build. This raised concerns that China was catching up to U.S. despite restrictions on chips and other key technologies used to develop AI. The ever-tighter race is now a central part of the U.S.-China rivalry. And so much is at stake that the U.S. must win, witnesses told the congressional panel.

Bipartisan bill seeks to ban Chinese AI from federal agencies, as U.S. vows to win the AI race

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A bipartisan group of lawmakers on Wednesday vowed to keep Chinese artificial intelligence systems out of federal agencies while pledging to ensure the U.S. will prevail against China in the global AI competition. "We are in a new Cold War, and AI is the strategic technology at the center," Rep. John Moolenaar, the Republican chair of the House Select Committee on China, said as he opened a hearing on the matter. "The future balance of power may very well be determined by who leads in AI." The hearing on Capitol Hill comes about five months after a Chinese technology start-up called DeekSeek introduced an AI model that rivaled platforms from OpenAI and Google in performance, but cost only a fraction to build. This raised concerns that China was catching up to U.S. despite restrictions on chips and other key technologies used to develop AI. The ever-tighter race is now a central part of the U.S.-China rivalry. And so much is at stake that the U.S. must win, witnesses told the congressional panel. The two countries are "in a long-term techno-security competition that will determine the shape of the global political order for the coming years," said Thomas Mahnken, president and CEO of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. Jack Clark, co-founder and head of policy at Anthropic, told the committee that AI has built-in values. "I know that AI systems are a reflection of the societies that are built from. AI built in democracies will lead to better technology for all of humanity. AI built in authoritarian nations will... be inescapably intertwined and imbued with authoritarianism," Clark said. "We must take decisive action to ensure America prevails." Earlier this year, Chris Lehane, OpenAI's head of global affairs, told reporters in Paris that the U.S. and China were the only two countries in the world that could build AI at scale. The competition, which he described as one between democratic AI and autocratic AI, is "very real and very serious," and the stakes are "enormous," he said, for "the global rails of AI will be built by one of those two countries." The 2025 AI Index Report by Stanford University's Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence center has the U.S. in the lead in producing top AI models. But the report notes China is rapidly closing the performance gap, reaching near parity in 2024 on several major benchmarks. It also shows that China leads in AI publications and patents. At the hearing, Clark urged the lawmakers to maintain and strengthen export controls of advanced chips to China. "This competition fundamentally runs on compute," he said. The U.S. must control the flow of powerful chips to China, Clark said, "or else you're giving them the tools they will need to build powerful AI to harm American interests." Mark Beall, Jr., president of government affairs at The AI Policy Network, said there are "a number of very glaring gaps" in the U.S. export controls that have allowed China to obtain controlled chips. Lawmakers earlier this year introduced a bill to track such chips to ensure they would not be diverted to the wrong hands. In another legislative step, Republican and Democratic lawmakers in both the House and the Senate on Wednesday introduced a bill to ban Chinese AI systems in the federal government. "The U.S. must draw a hard line: hostile AI systems have no business operating inside our government," Moolenaar said. The No Adversarial AI Act, as proposed, seeks to identify AI systems developed by foreign adversaries and ban their use in the U.S. government, with exceptions for use in research and counter terrorism.

Bipartisan bill seeks to ban Chinese AI from federal agencies

WASHINGTON -- A bipartisan group of lawmakers on Wednesday vowed to keep Chinese artificial intelligence systems out of federal agencies while pledging to ensure the U.S. will prevail against China in the global AI competition. "We are in a new Cold War, and AI is the strategic technology at the center," Rep. John Moolenaar, the Republican chair of the House Select Committee on China, said as he opened a hearing on the matter. "The future balance of power may very well be determined by who leads in AI." The hearing on Capitol Hill comes about five months after a Chinese technology start-up called DeekSeek introduced an AI model that rivaled platforms from OpenAI and Google in performance, but cost only a fraction to build. This raised concerns that China was catching up to U.S. despite restrictions on chips and other key technologies used to develop AI. The ever-tighter race is now a central part of the U.S.-China rivalry. And so much is at stake that the U.S. must win, witnesses told the congressional panel. The two countries are "in a long-term techno-security competition that will determine the shape of the global political order for the coming years," said Thomas Mahnken, president and CEO of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. Jack Clark, co-founder and head of policy at Anthropic, told the committee that AI has built-in values. "I know that AI systems are a reflection of the societies that are built from. AI built in democracies will lead to better technology for all of humanity. AI built in authoritarian nations will... be inescapably intertwined and imbued with authoritarianism," Clark said. "We must take decisive action to ensure America prevails." Earlier this year, Chris Lehane, OpenAI's head of global affairs, told reporters in Paris that the U.S. and China were the only two countries in the world that could build AI at scale. The competition, which he described as one between democratic AI and autocratic AI, is "very real and very serious," and the stakes are "enormous," he said, for "the global rails of AI will be built by one of those two countries." The 2025 AI Index Report by Stanford University's Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence center has the U.S. in the lead in producing top AI models. But the report notes China is rapidly closing the performance gap, reaching near parity in 2024 on several major benchmarks. It also shows that China leads in AI publications and patents. At the hearing, Clark urged the lawmakers to maintain and strengthen export controls of advanced chips to China. "This competition fundamentally runs on compute," he said. The U.S. must control the flow of powerful chips to China, Clark said, "or else you're giving them the tools they will need to build powerful AI to harm American interests." Mark Beall, Jr., president of government affairs at The AI Policy Network, said there are "a number of very glaring gaps" in the U.S. export controls that have allowed China to obtain controlled chips. Lawmakers earlier this year introduced a bill to track such chips to ensure they would not be diverted to the wrong hands. In another legislative step, Republican and Democratic lawmakers in both the House and the Senate on Wednesday introduced a bill to ban Chinese AI systems in the federal government. "The U.S. must draw a hard line: hostile AI systems have no business operating inside our government," Moolenaar said. The No Adversarial AI Act, as proposed, seeks to identify AI systems developed by foreign adversaries and ban their use in the U.S. government, with exceptions for use in research and counter terrorism.

US Lawmakers Introduce Bill to Bar Chinese AI in US Government Agencies

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday planned to introduce a bill in both houses of Congress that would bar U.S. executive agencies from using artificial intelligence models developed in China, including those from DeepSeek. The introduction of the bill, dubbed the "No Adversarial AI Act," comes after Reuters reported that a senior U.S. official has concluded that DeepSeek is aiding China's military and intelligence operations and has had access to "large volumes" of Nvidia's chips. DeepSeek shook the technology world in January with claims that it had developed an AI model that rivaled those from U.S. firms such as ChatGPT creator OpenAI at much lower cost. Since then, some U.S. companies and government agencies have banned the use of DeepSeek over data security concerns, and President Donald Trump's administration has mulled banning its use on U.S. government devices. The bill introduced Wednesday into the U.S. House of Representatives by Representative John Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican who chairs the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, an Illinois Democrat who is the ranking member on the committee, would create a permanent framework for barring the use of all Chinese AI models from U.S. executive agencies, as well as those from Russia, Iran and North Korea. The bill would require the Federal Acquisition Security Council to create a list of AI models developed in those countries and regularly update it. Federal agencies would not be able to buy or use those AI technologies without an exemption, such as for carrying out research, from the U.S. Congress or the Office of Management and Budget. The law also contains a provision that can be used to get technologies off the list with proof that they are not controlled or influenced by a foreign adversary of the U.S. "The U.S. must draw a hard line: hostile AI systems have no business operating inside our government," Moolenaar said in a statement. "This legislation creates a permanent firewall to keep adversary AI out of our most sensitive networks - where the cost of compromise is simply too high." Also co-sponsoring the bill in the House are Representative Ritchie Torres, a New York Democrat, and Representative Darin LaHood, an Illinois Republication. In the U.S. Senate, the bill will be led by Senators Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, and Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat. (Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Christopher Cushing)

Bipartisan Bill Seeks to Ban Chinese AI From Federal Agencies, as U.S. Vows to Win the AI Race

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A bipartisan group of lawmakers on Wednesday vowed to keep Chinese artificial intelligence systems out of federal agencies while pledging to ensure the U.S. will prevail against China in the global AI competition. "We are in a new Cold War, and AI is the strategic technology at the center," Rep. John Moolenaar, the Republican chair of the House Select Committee on China, said as he opened a hearing on the matter. "The future balance of power may very well be determined by who leads in AI." The hearing on Capitol Hill comes about five months after a Chinese technology start-up called DeekSeek introduced an AI model that rivaled platforms from OpenAI and Google in performance, but cost only a fraction to build. This raised concerns that China was catching up to U.S. despite restrictions on chips and other key technologies used to develop AI. The ever-tighter race is now a central part of the U.S.-China rivalry. And so much is at stake that the U.S. must win, witnesses told the congressional panel. The two countries are "in a long-term techno-security competition that will determine the shape of the global political order for the coming years," said Thomas Mahnken, president and CEO of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. Jack Clark, co-founder and head of policy at Anthropic, told the committee that AI has built-in values. "I know that AI systems are a reflection of the societies that are built from. AI built in democracies will lead to better technology for all of humanity. AI built in authoritarian nations will... be inescapably intertwined and imbued with authoritarianism," Clark said. "We must take decisive action to ensure America prevails." Earlier this year, Chris Lehane, OpenAI's head of global affairs, told reporters in Paris that the U.S. and China were the only two countries in the world that could build AI at scale. The competition, which he described as one between democratic AI and autocratic AI, is "very real and very serious," and the stakes are "enormous," he said, for "the global rails of AI will be built by one of those two countries." The 2025 AI Index Report by Stanford University's Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence center has the U.S. in the lead in producing top AI models. But the report notes China is rapidly closing the performance gap, reaching near parity in 2024 on several major benchmarks. It also shows that China leads in AI publications and patents. At the hearing, Clark urged the lawmakers to maintain and strengthen export controls of advanced chips to China. "This competition fundamentally runs on compute," he said. The U.S. must control the flow of powerful chips to China, Clark said, "or else you're giving them the tools they will need to build powerful AI to harm American interests." Mark Beall, Jr., president of government affairs at The AI Policy Network, said there are "a number of very glaring gaps" in the U.S. export controls that have allowed China to obtain controlled chips. Lawmakers earlier this year introduced a bill to track such chips to ensure they would not be diverted to the wrong hands. In another legislative step, Republican and Democratic lawmakers in both the House and the Senate on Wednesday introduced a bill to ban Chinese AI systems in the federal government. "The U.S. must draw a hard line: hostile AI systems have no business operating inside our government," Moolenaar said. The No Adversarial AI Act, as proposed, seeks to identify AI systems developed by foreign adversaries and ban their use in the U.S. government, with exceptions for use in research and counter terrorism. Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

US lawmakers unveil Bipartisan 'No Adversarial AI Act' to block Chinese-Controlled AI from federal systems

Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) and Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI) of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party have put forth the No Adversarial AI Act, a bipartisan measure aimed at safeguarding federal agencies from the dangers associated with artificial intelligence technologies that are under the control of foreign adversaries, specifically the People's Republic of China (PRC), as reported by the Democrats Select Committee on the CCP (DSCCCP). This legislation, co-sponsored by Representatives Ritchie Torres (D-NY) and Darin LaHood (R-IL) in the House and introduced by Senators Rick Scott (R-FL) and Gary Peters (D-MI) in the Senate, requires that the Federal Acquisition Security Council create and frequently update a list of AI technologies developed by adversarial entities. DeepSeek serves as an example, having documented connections to the Chinese Communist Party and its intelligence network, and its privacy policy clearly states that user data from the United States is stored in China. In April, Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi and Chairman Moolenaar unveiled the results of their investigation into DeepSeek, which included a recommendation to Congress to "impose a federal procurement ban on AI models originating from the PRC, including a prohibition on their use on government devices," as articulated in the DSCCCP release. The No Adversarial AI Act would prohibit US government agencies from acquiring or utilizing AI products created by firms like DeepSeek unless a specific exception is provided for research, testing, or national security needs, requiring notification to Congress. This legislation also addresses adversarial AI technologies that may arise in the future, which could represent a similar or even more significant threat to federal systems and data, according to the DSCCCP release. "Artificial intelligence controlled by foreign adversaries represents a direct risk to our national security, data integrity, and government operations," stated Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi. "We must not permit hostile regimes to embed their software in our most vital systems. This bipartisan measure will establish a clear barrier between foreign adversary AI and the U.S. government, safeguarding our institutions and the American populace. Chinese, Russian, and other adversarial AI systems have no place on government devices and certainly should not be entrusted with government data," as quoted in the DSCCCP release. "We are currently in a new Cold War, with AI emerging as the strategic technology at its core," remarked Chairman Moolenaar. "The CCP does not innovate; it steals, scales, and undermines. From intellectual property theft to chip smuggling to the integration of AI into surveillance and military platforms, the Chinese Communist Party is hastening efforts to weaponize this technology. We must draw a definitive line: systems used by the U.S. government cannot be powered by tools designed to serve authoritarian objectives." "The Communist Chinese regime will resort to any tactic to spy, steal, and weaken the United States, and as AI technology progresses, we must enhance our efforts to protect national security and prevent adversarial regimes from exploiting technology against us," expressed Senator Scott. "Given the clear evidence that China can access US user data on AI platforms, it is reckless for our federal agencies to utilise these hazardous systems and expose our government to Beijing's influence. Our No Adversarial AI Act will mitigate this direct threat to our national security and ensure that sensitive data remains secure from enemy hands." "Artificial intelligence holds immense promise for our economy and society, but it also presents real security risks when leveraged by foreign adversaries," said Senator Peters. "This legislation helps safeguard US government systems from AI developed by foreign adversaries that could compromise our national security or put Americans' data at risk. It's a smart, focused step to ensure our government technology infrastructure keeps pace with the evolving threats we face while still allowing room for scientific research, evaluation, and innovation. I'm proud to support this effort to protect Michiganders' personally identifiable information from bad actors who could exploit their data housed on government systems," the DSCCCP release quoted. The bill empowers the federal government to identify, exclude, and remove adversarial AI from its systems while enhancing transparency and oversight of federal AI.