A senator from Missouri introduced legislation on Jan. 29 to prevent artificial intelligence technology and intellectual property imports from China from coming into the United States.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., introduced the Decoupling America’s Artificial Intelligence Capabilities from China Act of 2025 to the Senate last week to ban AI technology – as well as any components required to build the technology – exports and imports from the United States.
The bill also prevents U.S. companies and universities from conducting research in China and bans U.S. investment in Chinese AI tech companies.
“Every dollar and gig of data that flows into Chinese AI are dollars and data that will ultimately be used against the United States,” said Sen. Hawley in a statement. “America cannot afford to empower our greatest adversary at the expense of our own strength.”
Sen. Hawley said the legislation comes as a response to DeepSeek – a Chinese-made AI model. The company claims the model was built using a fraction of the cost of U.S. industry-leading models like OpenAI because it uses fewer advanced chips.
The latest version of DeepSeek was released on Jan. 20, spurring comments by President Donald Trump who said that DeepSeek’s announcement was a “wake-up call” and that U.S. companies must focus on “competing to win.” The China-based company’s AI model has raised concern in Washington about its efforts to keep ahead of China in the AI technology race.
Other recent efforts of the United States to keep ahead of Beijing include Trump’s recent commitment to using executive orders to sustain energy demands for expanded AI development in The Stargate Project, headed by a consortium of AI tech firms who said they will invest $100 billion in AI infrastructure.
On the same day Hawley’s legislation was introduced, leaders of the House Select Committee on China sent a letter to National Security Adviser Mike Waltz calling for the restriction of AI chips made by Silicon Valley tech firm Nvidia which they said is “currently outside the scope of U.S. export controls.” According to the letter, DeepSeek relies on the use of Nvidia’s H20 chip.
“Ensuring American economic superiority means cutting China off from American ingenuity and halting the subsidization of CCP innovation,” said Sen. Hawley in a statement on his legislation.
Sen. Hawley’s legislation is the first to be introduced directly in response to DeepSeek and currently has no confirmed cosponsors.
