Howard Lutnick, President Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Commerce who would oversee future export controls on AI technology, told the US Senate during a confirmation hearing on Wednesday that it appeared DeepSeek had misappropriated US AI technology and vowed to impose restrictions.
“I do not believe that DeepSeek was done all above board. That’s nonsense,” Lutnick said. “I’m going to be rigorous in our pursuit of restrictions and enforcing those restrictions to keep us in the lead.”
David Sacks, the White House’s AI and crypto czar, also raised concerns about DeepSeek distillation in a Fox News interview on Tuesday.