From Newsgroup: comp.ai.philosophy
A recent congressional investigation has concluded that the Chinese
artificial intelligence platform DeepSeek poses a serious and growing
threat to U.S. national security.
According to a new report from the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, DeepSeek secretly harvests American user data, censors information
according to CCP directives, and was likely built using stolen U.S. technologyuall while relying on semiconductor chips that should never have reached China in the first place.
oDeepSeek represents a profound threat to our nationAs security,o the
report warns. oAlthough it presents itself as just another AI chatbota
closer inspection reveals that the app siphons data back to the PeopleAs Republic of China (PRC), creates security vulnerabilities for its users,
and relies on a model that covertly censors and manipulates information pursuant to Chinese law.o
To address this threat, the report recommends an expansion of export
controls, stronger enforcement against Chinese AI platforms, and the
creation of a federal whistleblower program to report violations. It also calls for heightened coordination among national security agencies to
prevent China from achieving a ostrategic surpriseo in the AI race.
How DeepSeek Worksuand Why ItAs Dangerous
The committeeAs investigation found that DeepSeek transmits extensive data
u including chat history, device details, and even user typing behavior u through back-end infrastructure connected to China Mobile, a state-owned telecom firm designated by the U.S. Department of Defense as a Chinese military asset. China Mobile has been banned from operating in the U.S.
since 2019 due to fears that ounauthorized access to customera data could create irreparable damage to U.S. national security.o
Cybersecurity analysts also discovered that DeepSeek sends user
information with ono meaningful security measures,o raising serious
concerns that the system was deliberately designed to make AmericansA data easily accessible to Chinese authorities.
Moreover, the AI model itself is manipulated to serve BeijingAs strategic interests. DeepSeek censored politically sensitive topics, including democracy, Taiwan, and human rights, in 85 percent of test cases. It
doesnAt merely avoid controversial topics; it actively rewrites history
and reinforces CCP talking points. oBeijing is not just censoring the
internet at home. It is embedding its Great Firewall into platforms
Americans use every day,o the report notes.
Built on Stolen Technology
DeepSeekAs capabilities didnAt come from scratch. Congressional
investigators found that DeepSeek likely used omodel distillationo u a technique that copies reasoning capabilities from other AI models u to replicate U.S. systems like OpenAIAs ChatGPT. OpenAI confirmed to Congress that DeepSeek employees circumvented protections, used fraudulent
accounts, and extracted model outputs in violation of OpenAIAs terms of service.
oThrough our review, we found that DeepSeek employees circumvented
guardrails in OpenAIAs modelsa to accelerate the development of advanced
model reasoning capabilities at a lower cost,o OpenAI told the committee.
This kind of intellectual property theft poses serious challenges for U.S. companies trying to maintain a competitive edge in a high-stakes field.
Smuggled Chips Fuel the Engine
Even more disturbing is how DeepSeek built and trained its model.
According to the report, DeepSeek uses tens of thousands of high-powered
chips made by Nvidia, including A100s, H800s, and H100s u many of which
are subject to strict U.S. export controls. These chips are crucial to building large-scale AI models, and selling them to China without a
license is prohibited.
Yet DeepSeek appears to have acquired many of these chips through illegal channels. Investigators discovered a smuggling network operating out of Singapore, where three individuals u one a Chinese national u were charged
for illegally exporting Nvidia chips to China. The network was busted
shortly after members of Congress raised alarms about chip smuggling via Singapore.
This incident underscores a broader problem: U.S. companies and
intermediaries are still supplying adversaries with the technological
tools needed to match and surpass American capabilities.
A Pattern of Strategic Deception
DeepSeekAs founder, Liang Wenfeng, maintains effective control of the
company through a complex corporate structure with ties to High-Flyer
Quant, a firm that invested $420 million into DeepSeekAs development. The company operates within a state-subsidized Chinese tech corridor built to realize oXi Jinping Thoughto u the ideological core of the CCP.
LiangAs connections to military-linked researchers and the state-run
Zhejiang Lab highlight how closely Chinese tech innovation is tied to
national security goals. The appAs integration with entities like Tencent, Baidu, and ByteDance u each with their own histories of surveillance, censorship, or military affiliation u makes DeepSeek more than just a technological threat. It is, in effect, a tool of geopolitical warfare.
Lessons from the Cold War
Experts interviewed for this piece suggest the U.S. needs to reestablish
the kind of strict export control framework that helped contain Soviet technological ambitions during the Cold War. Hans-Gnnter F%rstner, a
retired professor of international law who enforced Cold War-era trade controls for West Germany, recalled how the U.S.-led Coordination
Committee for Multilateral Export Controls (COCOM) successfully denied
Moscow access to critical technologies.
oThe Americansa always emphasized that the priority was to deny access to
all knowledge and products related to robotics and space technology,o
F%rstner said. oPresident Reagan was entirely correct.o
Dr. Xiah<u Li Wei, a former senior CCP official who defected to the West, stressed that the current threat is even greater. oThe CCP wanted the West
to see China as a completely different entity from the Soviet Union,o he
said. oIt was a deception. The CCP kept winning until recently.o
Policy Recommendations: What Congress Must Do
To counter this growing threat, the report offers several urgent recommendations:
Expand export controls to include new chip types like NvidiaAs H20 and
improve enforcement mechanisms through whistleblower incentives and
bilateral crackdowns on smuggling routes like Singapore.
Require U.S. firms to track the end users of advanced chips and software. Mandate security and transparency standards for all AI systems trained on U.S.-origin technology.
Prohibit the federal government from using Chinese AI platforms like
DeepSeek.
The report concludes with a stark warning: oThe potential for AI strategic surprise is most acute in the national security space. An AI weaponized
and deployed by a U.S. adversary may prove to be a decisive advantage
before a conflict startso.
ChinaAs AI ambitions are not just technological u they are ideological, strategic, and adversarial. The time to act is now.
Ben Solis is the pen name of an international affairs journalist,
historian, and researcher.
https://amac.us/newsline/national-security/report-chinese-ai-built-on- stolen-technology-poses-major-threat-to-u-s-national-security/
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