House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Andrew R. Garbarino and House Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar announced on Apr. 29 a joint investigation into national security and cybersecurity risks linked to artificial intelligence models developed in the People’s Republic of China. The probe focuses on low-cost, open-weight, and API-accessible systems from companies such as DeepSeek, Alibaba, Moonshot AI, and MiniMax.
The investigation follows concerns that Chinese AI firms are using unauthorized techniques to extract capabilities from leading American AI models. These capabilities are then repackaged into lower-cost products without the same safeguards as the original U.S.-developed versions. This practice could present risks related to intellectual property, cybersecurity, and supply chains.
As part of their initial steps, Garbarino and Moolenaar sent letters to Anysphere and Airbnb regarding their use or exposure to these Chinese-developed AI systems. In a letter addressing Anysphere’s Cursor Composer 2 model—which reportedly uses an open-weight model by Moonshot AI—the Chairmen wrote: “The billions of dollars American companies invest in foundational research, compute infrastructure, and security engineering is being undercut by a sustained extraction campaign conducted at a fraction of the cost of independent development. This threat is not limited to commercial harm… When capabilities are stripped out through distillation and repackaged without equivalent safeguards, the resulting models may become available to hostile state actors, terrorist organizations, and criminal enterprises.”
The Chairmen further noted: “These issues are unfolding against a broader and accelerating strategic shift… PRC-developed open-weight AI models have experienced rapid global adoption… What is at issue… is not simply market competition but the growing risk that software systems used across the American economy… will come to depend on models developed by PRC-linked laboratories.”
In another letter sent to Airbnb about its use of Alibaba’s Qwen model for customer service operations over American alternatives due to cost considerations, they said: “[Airbnb] recently stated publicly that Airbnb is relying on Qwen over American alternatives because it is ‘fast and cheap.’ The Committees have serious concerns about the national security and data-security implications…” They concluded: “[T]he spread of Chinese open-weight AI models carries consequences well beyond ordinary software adoption preferences… American firms adopting these models are not simply choosing a cheaper tool; they are importing an architecture designed to serve the Chinese state.”
Background provided by committee documents notes previous hearings held in March 2026 focused on risks posed by technologies developed within adversarial ecosystems—including surveillance vulnerabilities—and prior investigations into cyber threats involving U.S.-based companies’ use of foreign-developed emerging technologies.
