Senator Hawley Proposes Jail Time for People Who Download DeepSeek

The Republican Senator from Missouri Josh Hawley has introduced a new bill that would make it illegal to import or export artificial intelligence products to and from China, meaning someone who knowingly downloads a Chinese developed AI model like the now immensely popular DeepSeek could face up to 20 years in jail, a million dollar fine, or both, should such a law pass.

Kevin Bankston, a senior advisor on AI governance at the Center for Democracy & Technology, told 404 Media it is “a broad attack on the very idea of scientific dialogue and technology exchange with China around AI, with potentially ruinous penalties for AI researchers and users alike and deeply troubling implications for the future of online speech and freedom of scientific inquiry.”

Hawley introduced the legislation, titled the Decoupling America’s Artificial Intelligence Capabilities from China Act, on Wednesday of last week. 

“Every dollar and gig of data that flows into Chinese AI are dollars and data that will ultimately be used against the United States,” Senator Hawley said in a statement. “America cannot afford to empower 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 CCP innovation.”

Hawley’s statement explicitly says that he introduced the legislation because of the release of DeepSeek, an advanced AI model that’s competitive with its American counterparts, and which its developers claimed was made for a fraction of the cost and without access to as many and as advanced of chips, though these claims are unverified. Hawley’s statement called DeepSeek “a data-harvesting, low-cost AI model that sparked international concern and sent American technology stocks plummeting.” 

Hawley’s statement says the goal of the bill is to “prohibit the import from or export to China of artificial intelligence technology, “prohibit American companies from conducting AI research in China or in cooperation with Chinese companies,” and “Prohibit U.S. companies from investing money in Chinese AI development.”

Hawley’s bill and its aims were covered credulously on Fox News, but even if you think the bill’s goals are worth pursuing the actual language of the bill is broad and dystopian. Unlike legislators who fearmongered about TikTok and wanted to ban it, Hawley’s bill would criminalize the activity of average users, millions of whom downloaded DeepSeek recently, making it one of the most popular apps on the Apple App store. 

Specifically, the bill prohibits “the importation into the United States of artificial intelligence or generative artificial intelligence technology or intellectual proprietary developed or produced in the People’s Republic of China.” Those who violate this  “Shall be subject to the criminal penalties set forth in subsection (b) of section 1760 of the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 (50 U. S.C, 4819).” 

That law states that “A person who willfully commits, willfully attempts to commit, or willfully conspires to commit, or aids and abets in the commission of, an unlawful act described in subsection (a) (1) shall be fined not more than $1,000,000; and (2) in the case of the individual, shall be imprisoned for not more than 20 years, or both.”

the Center for Democracy & Technology’s Bankston told me that he’s skeptical that there would be strong criminal cases against someone who unintentionally downloaded an app like DeepSeek because the legislation specifies a person’s conduct must be “willful” for the imposition of criminal penalties, the bill is still “worrisomely broad.” 

“It appears that it *could* apply to someone who downloaded DeepSeek knowing that it was from China, and yes, the criminal penalty for that under this proposal would be up to one million dollars or 20 years in prison (and also potentially civil penalties as well, which may require less proof of state of mind and may potentially even reach a mere accidental ‘importer’ of a Chinese model),” Bankston said.

The bill, which also prohibits the “transfer of research,” could create an unworkable environment for computer scientists who make their research public, and regularly read AI papers published by Chinese researchers. 

“Beyond just impacting people downloading models from China, the bill’s penalties for the import to or export from China of AI technology and intellectual property could also potentially extend to anyone who publishes AI models or research papers on the open internet knowing they will be downloaded by people in China,” Bankston said. “Researchers are also threatened by the second half of the bill, which would directly outlaw American collaboration with researchers at basically any Chinese university or company—with a fine of up to 100 million dollars for any company that violates the prohibition, amongst other penalties.”

“The bill threatens the development and publishing of AI advancements in the United States, and we’re particularly worried about the impact on open and collaborative development of these technologies outside the proprietary systems of the Big Tech incumbents,” Kit Walsh, the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Director of AI and Access-to-Knowledge Legal Projects, told me. “In the past, the government has argued that merely publishing information on the internet counts as an export, and interpreting this law in such a way would further solidify the dominance of proprietary AI over open or academic research. The law would also interfere with efforts at AI accountability, such as transparency requirements that states and members of Congress have sought to create in order to make sure that AI isn’t harming people in the United States when used for decisions about such wide-ranging things as housing, health care, and hiring.”

On its face, the bill seems mostly like hawkish posturing from Hawley, and the language of the bill seems unworkable given the current state of computer science, the AI industry, and the culture of researchers sharing their work. However, there is bipartisan support for legislation that targets China wherever it appears able to topple American dominance. Banning TikTok also seemed like a ludicrous notion at first given its popularity among Americans, and while the app is still live, a bill banning it did pass both the house and the Senate and was signed by the president. 

Hawley’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Update: This article has been updates with comment from the EFF.

About the author

Emanuel Maiberg is interested in little known communities and processes that shape technology, troublemakers, and petty beefs. Email him at emanuel@404media.co