This means that if such a law passes, 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.

The legislation, with the catchy title Decoupling America's Artificial Intelligence Capabilities from China Act, was drafted with DeepSeek in mind.

"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 subsidisation 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."

He said his bill will "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 US companies from investing money in Chinese AI development."

The bill has garnered some bipartisan support. It was co-introduced by Senator Richard Blumenthal, showing some cross-party agreement. It does have some opposition from other Senators, notably Ted Cruz, who objected to a unanimous consent request to pass the bill.

Even if the bill does not go ahead, it does indicate that DeepSeek faces a lot of opposition in the US and might not be the OpenAI/Nvidia killer that it is being claimed.