US senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) has introduced a bill that could effectively make it illegal to use DeepSeek, a new ChatGPT competitor that made huge waves last week, within the United States. Hawley’s bill, introduced last week, looks to “prohibit United States persons from advancing artificial intelligence capabilities within the People’s Republic of China, and for other purposes.” The bill, described by Harvard AI research fellow Ben Brooks as “easily the most aggressive legislative action on AI,” could land anybody importing “technology or intellectual property” developed in China in prison for 20 years, with fines up to $1 million for individuals and $100 million for companies. Needless to say, that’s all pretty extreme, which may doom the bill: it was tabled last week, which in practice often means a proposed new law has lost legislative steam. Nonetheless, the bill shows that there’s considerable panic among lawmakers following DeepSeek’s astronomical rise and the enormous selloff it triggered last week. Congress is now desperately looking to shut China out to preserve US market interests, with lawmakers as disparate as Hawley and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) arguing that the Biden administration didn’t act fast enough before implementing a ban on AI chip exports to China starting in 2022. “Multiple administrations have failed — at the behest of corporate interests — to update and enforce our export controls in a timely manner,” Hawley and Warren wrote in an appeal to Congress obtained by The Washington Post. “We cannot let that continue.” Earlier this month, DeepSeek…New Law Would Make It Illegal to Use DeepSeek, Punishable With 20 Years' Prison Time