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House advances bill to bar DeepSeek and similar foreign AI from state devices
Summary
Lawmakers approved an amended House Bill 23 13 restricting the use of the AI platform DeepSeek and similar platforms tied to specified foreign entities on state devices and networks, after adopting a narrower amendment to avoid banning web browsers.
Representative Hohisler, the bill sponsor, told the Kansas House that House Bill 23 13 would prohibit the use of the artificial-intelligence platform DeepSeek — which he described as having ties to China Mobile and storing user data on servers in China — on state-owned devices and state networks.
Supporters argued the platform raises national-security and data-privacy risks. “DeepSeek has direct ties to China Mobile,” Hohisler said on the floor, and “its terms of service states that operations are governed by Chinese law,” a case he said makes the platform subject to foreign government access requests.
Opponents warned the measure as originally written was overly broad. A floor amendment struck language that would have prohibited “the installation of any application that allows users to access the artificial intelligence platform,” which sponsors said could have effectively banned browsers on agency laptops. The amendment sponsor explained the change was intended to narrow the ban so state agencies could still use browsers while denying installations of the specific platforms in question.
Representative Simmons and other members said the bill was analogous to prior restrictions on specific foreign apps and urged colleagues to vote according to district priorities; Representative Carmichael and Representative Carr spoke in opposition, saying cybersecurity is primarily a federal responsibility and objecting to broadly worded bans that could sweep in legitimate tools.
After adopting the amendment, the House committee of the whole and then the full House process reported HB 23 13 favorably for passage; the committee of the whole later recommended HB 23 13 be passed as amended.
The floor record does not include a roll-call tally for the final passage in the committee of the whole within the transcript; the committee recommendation was included in the committee report delivered later in the day.
