This Spring Festival, the name "DeepSeek" quickly became popular and was the focus of the global technology community. This AI chatbot developed in China has rapidly attracted the attention of global users with its outstanding performance and extremely low resource consumption: 16 million downloads in 18 days before its release, topping the app store charts in 140 countries worldwide...
Therefore, the rapid rise of DeepSeek is seen by the industry as a severe challenge to the American technology industry, especially in the AI field. Thus, a storm surrounding AI technology is brewing: Recently, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley proposed a radical bill that calls for strict restrictions on Chinese AI technology, even making the downloading and use of Chinese AI models (like DeepSeek) illegal — violators could face up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $100 million.
Bill content: The bill prohibits the use of Chinese AI technology in the U.S. and severely punishes violators. It is reported that the new bill proposed by Josh Hawley is called the "Decoupling America’s Artificial Intelligence Capabilities from China Act." The core content of this bill is to prohibit U.S. citizens and companies from importing or using any AI technology and intellectual property related to China, and directly classify the downloading and use of Chinese AI models as a crime. According to the bill, any individual or enterprise that "intentionally" imports Chinese - developed "AI capabilities or generative AI technology or intellectual property" will face up to 20 years in prison, fines of up to $1 million for individuals, and fines of up to $100 million for enterprises. Josh Hawley stated that the release of DeepSeek is the direct reason for proposing this bill.
He explained that DeepSeek is a "low - cost, data - collecting AI model," and its rise has not only raised concerns in the international community but also led to a significant drop in U.S. tech stocks. In Josh Hawley's view, every dollar and every byte of data flowing into Chinese AI will ultimately be used to counter the U.S.: "The U.S. cannot enhance our greatest competitor at the expense of our own strength. Ensuring America's economic advantage means cutting off the connection between China and American innovation." In simple terms, Josh Hawley believes that breakthroughs in Chinese AI may threaten America's technological leadership and national security. The "most radical legislation" against Chinese AI has sparked expected controversy, and the bill proposed by Josh Hawley has drawn widespread attention, with many voices expressing opposition. Most critics believe that the legislators' motives are not purely based on national security or technological competition considerations, but more about protecting the U.S. market.
Therefore, this bill may be more about resisting China's technological development rather than addressing real security issues. Kevin Bankston, a senior advisor on AI governance at the Center for Democracy & Technology, pointed out that this bill not only threatens ordinary users but may also have far - reaching impacts on research collaboration and academic freedom. "In addition to affecting those who download Chinese AI models, the penalties for importing and exporting AI technology and intellectual property could extend to anyone publishing AI models or research papers on the open internet, as Chinese users can also download these research results—any company violating the ban could face fines of up to $100 million." Kit Walsh, director of the AI and Knowledge Acquisition Legal Project at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, also expressed similar concerns.
She believes that this bill may further consolidate the dominance of large tech companies over AI technology while hindering the development of open research and academic collaboration. Moreover, the harsh penalties proposed by the bill, especially the potential for up to 20 years in prison, are considered overly radical and may even risk violating the principles of the U.S. free market—after all, DeepSeek does not directly conflict with U.S. national security interests; its emergence is more about market competition pressure on domestic tech companies. Furthermore, similar technological competition should be seen as a normal phenomenon in the context of globalization, and excessive restrictions may lead to the U.S. being isolated in global technological competition
As Harvard AI researcher Ben Brooks commented on the bill: this is "the most radical legislative action against AI to date." In response to the controversy surrounding this bill, Josh Hawley and some supporters simply stated that the current international situation and China's rapid progress in the AI field have forced the U.S. to take more radical measures to ensure its technological leadership is not threatened. However, perhaps due to the extremity of the bill, it was "temporarily shelved" last week—"temporarily shelved" often means that the bill has lost momentum in the legislative process. The rise of DeepSeek has caused a significant shock to the U.S. market mainly due to its technological breakthroughs. The DeepSeek - R1 released on January 20 not only surpassed the OpenAI o1 model in multiple tests but, more importantly, its API price is only 3.7% of the latter. This achievement has not only made DeepSeek the focus of international attention but has also made U.S. tech companies uneasy. Some Wall Street analysts worry that U.S. tech companies may be investing too much in AI development, while low - cost alternatives like DeepSeek could disrupt the market landscape—even raising doubts about whether existing U.S. AI products are over - invested.
As a result, last week, the rise of DeepSeek directly led to a loss of over $1 trillion in the U.S. stock market, especially with the market value of AI - related stocks significantly shrinking. As a leading global AI chip manufacturer, Nvidia was also caught up in this storm: it plummeted by $600 billion in one night, setting a record for the largest single - day drop in history. In fact, it is not just DeepSeek; in recent years, China's technological development has continuously raised U.S. concerns about security and privacy, similar to the ban on TikTok in the U.S.
The U.S. government and legislators are becoming increasingly cautious about technology and products from China, especially in the fields of data security and national security. Currently, although Josh Hawley's bill has been shelved, regardless of whether the bill is ultimately passed, its proposal itself has already indicated that U.S. legislators are extremely uneasy about the rise of Chinese AI technology. For ordinary American users, whether downloading and using AI models like DeepSeek truly poses a national security threat remains a thought - provoking question; for researchers and tech companies, how to maintain cooperation and innovation in an increasingly tense international environment will be a greater challenge.
