House Committee Calls for Expanded AI Safety Institute Role

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI) and Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are requesting that the Department of Commerce broaden the U.S. AI Safety Institute’s (AISI) role to address the national security threat from China’s AI advancements.

In a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the lawmakers stated that “there is a strong national security need for better understanding, predicting, and preparing for the PRC’s AI progress.” The January 2025 launch of DeepSeek’s large language model, R1, was mentioned as a key example.

The Committee’s investigation of DeepSeek showed “multiple national security risks, including the funneling of Americans’ private data to the PRC, manipulation of the model’s outputs pursuant to PRC law, and the potential theft of U.S. AI technology through model distillation.”

Chairman Moolenaar and Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi warned that as AI systems improve, “the need to predict and prepare for PRC AI developments—and to avoid strategic surprise—will only grow more urgent.”

The Committee has asked AISI to expand its mission to include a focus on PRC AI development, adding that “a whole-of-government approach will be needed to ensure enduring U.S. dominance in frontier AI development.” They noted AISI’s “unique technical expertise, strong partnerships with industry, and experience in testing and evaluations” as valuable to the U.S. in staying ahead of the CCP.

Moolenaar and Krishnamoorthi detailed areas where AISI could support U.S. national security.

The lawmakers stated in their letter: “We look forward to engaging with the AI Safety Institute to better understand its ongoing work and resourcing needs on these topics.”

The full letter is available.