A Republican senator has unveiled a sweeping bill aimed at protecting American artificial intelligence (AI) development and preventing it from advancing communist China’s AI capabilities.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) launched the “Decoupling America’s Artificial Intelligence Capabilities from China Act” in the Senate last week.
Hawley’s bill aims to stop U.S.–China cooperation on AI development. It would prohibit AI products from being exported to or imported from the communist regime. It would also ban U.S. companies from investing in Chinese AI development.
Violating the law could mean hefty fines or up to 20 years in prison.
“Every dollar and gig of data that flows into Chinese AI are dollars and data that will ultimately be used against the United States,” Hawley said in a statement on Jan. 29.
Hawley said U.S. companies cannot afford to invest in Chinese AI because that would mean empowering “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 [Chinese Communist Party] innovation,” the Missouri senator said.
Sahar Tahvili, a researcher specializing in AI, told The Epoch Times that through the legislation, the United States would seek to block China’s access to AI developments.
“The U.S. aims to restrict China’s access to AI, both by limiting the sharing of user data from the U.S. sources and reducing hardware infrastructure support from allied companies,” said Tahvili, co-author of “Artificial Intelligence Methods for Optimization of the Software Testing Process.”
Tahvili said the new legislation seeks to contain the impact of DeepSeek.
The legislation will keep U.S. data and hardware infrastructure from being used to develop Chinese AI, she said. DeepSeek used older-generation chips from California-based Nvidia in the development of the product.
Discussions on data security are already underway, with efforts to relocate data centers and related hardware infrastructure to the United States, she said.
Tahvili noted that the ongoing debate over Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok and potential restrictions on the popular app further highlight concerns about foreign access to U.S. user data and AI-driven technologies.
Another expert said a full decoupling could spark a tit-for-tat between the two countries and suggests a “rivalry with collaboration” approach.
Pooran Pandey, an associate at the California-based Global Techno Politics Forum, told The Epoch Times that an AI tug-of-war between the United States and China could lead to supply chain issues.
He thinks that if the legislation passes, China will retaliate and aim to keep U.S. companies away from rare earth elements and minerals needed for third-generation AI tools for automotive, civil, and military equipment.
