WTF?! Would you be willing to use the App Store-topping DeepSeek if doing so were illegal, potentially landing you behind bars for 20 years and a fine up to $1 million? A senator has introduced a new bill designed to restrict Chinese AI products that would make this bizarre scenario a reality.
Republican Senator from Missouri Josh Hawley's proposed legislation, the Decoupling America's Artificial Intelligence Capabilities from China Act of 2025, aims to prohibit those in the US from advancing AI capabilities within the People's Republic of China, and for other purposes.
If passed, the law would impose fines of up to $100 million on US enterprises that conduct AI research with Chinese firms, invest in Chinese AI companies, collaborate with Chinese organizations on the technology, or import intellectual property or technology developed in China. They would also forfeit any license, contract, subcontract, grant, or public benefit previously awarded by federal agencies, and employees could also be fined up to $1 million.
The bill also prohibits "transfer of research," which might affect researchers who make their work publicly available.
The rules would apply to individuals, too, who could face penalties under section 1760 of the Export Control Reform Act of 2018. That would mean downloading AI models from China such as DeepSeek could land you a $1 million fine and 20 years in prison. US shareholders in Chinese companies engaged in AI work could also be fined and jailed.
"Every dollar and gig of data that flows into Chinese AI are dollars and data that will ultimately be used against the United States," Senator Hawley said in a statement. "America cannot afford to empower our greatest adversary at the expense of our own strength. Ensuring American economic superiority means cutting China off from American ingenuity and halting the subsidization of CCP innovation."
Wow. Congress just tabled a bill that would *actually* kill open-source. This is easily the most aggressive legislative action on AI – and it was proposed by the GOP senator who slammed @finkd for Llama.
– Ben Brooks (@opensauceAI) February 1, 2025
Here's how it works, and why it's different to anything before it. pic.twitter.com/XKIWWY7oYv
Hawley's statement specifically mentions DeepSeek, which it describes as a "data-harvesting, low-cost AI model that sparked international concern and sent American technology stocks plummeting." Nvidia's value fell $600 billion, the largest one-day loss in US history, and the market went into a tailspin following DeepSeek's rise and the claims that its development costs were a fraction of those required by rival AI companies (though they were likely a lot higher than claimed).
Following the launch of DeepSeek's open-source R1 model, which is said to have comparable performance to OpenAI's o1, Alibaba released its Qwen 2.5-Max model. The Chinese ecommerce giant says its product surpasses the capabilities of DeepSeek's offerings.
It's unclear how the bill would be enforced, especially with DeepSeek being the top-ranking app on the US Apple App Store.
The good news for DeepSeek users is that the bill was tabled last week, so it may be killed even without an outright vote against it.
In January, the US Navy reminded its personnel not to use generative AI apps for work or personal use, highlighting DeepSeek due to its "potential security and ethical concerns associated with the model's origin and usage"
Downloading DeepSeek could lead to jail time and a $1 million fine under new US bill
