Seven Republican US senators have called for an investigation into DeepSeek’s data security threats, citing growing concerns that the artificial intelligence (AI) model could leak personal data or generate harmful content.
In a letter submitted to US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the lawmakers urged the government to evaluate the risks of Chinese AI models collecting and sending data to servers in China.
After DeepSeek released its R1 model in late January, Wiz Research found a publicly accessible database belonging to the Chinese AI model. It said the database contained a significant volume of chat history, backend data and sensitive information, including log streams, API Secrets and operational details.
The senators also said that R1 probably did not undergo comprehensive red-teaming and safety tests to prevent the generation of harmful content.
“A Wall Street Journal reporter was able to get R1 to write text for a social media campaign intended to encourage self-harm amongst teenage girls, as well as to provide instructions for carrying out a bioweapon attack,” they said.
They requested the US Commerce Department to:
explaining how it will use resources like the Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI) to work with relevant agencies to protect US businesses and citizens;
investigate the national security risks posed by Chinese open-source AI models;
Identify any evidence of these models providing US data to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) or associated companies.
DeepSeek’s military use
In March, Chinese media reported that the PLA was using DeepSeek in its hospitals, the People’s Armed Police (PAP), and national defense mobilization units.
Ren Hao, a senior software engineer at 301 Hospital, stated that the hospital deployed DeepSeek-R1 on Huawei’s Ascend hardware to create a local knowledge database. The PLA’s Central Theatre Command General Hospital also said it used DeepSeek’s R1-70B AI model to assist doctors by suggesting treatment plans.
Apart from these, Chinese academics said the home-made large language model (LLM) can be deployed for military use.
Fu Yanfang, a researcher at Xian Technological University’s School of Computer Science and Engineering, said in May that her team used DeepSeek’s AI models to generate military simulation scenarios.
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