Ro Khanna Presses Chinese AI Giants Over ‘Kill Switches’, Superintelligence

WASHINGTON, DC-A senior US lawmaker has warned that neither the United States nor China would emerge a winner if humans lose control of advanced artificial intelligence, pressing Chinese AI companies and the US intelligence community for safeguards against potentially catastrophic biological, nuclear and economic consequences.

Congressman Ro Khanna, the top Democrat on the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, has sought answers from DeepSeek, Alibaba and Moonshot AI on their plans for artificial general intelligence and superintelligence.

“Neither the US nor China wins if humans lose control of this technology or misaligned AI triggers a global economic, biological, or nuclear crisis,” Khanna wrote to executives of the Chinese companies.

He sent letters to DeepSeek CEO Liang Wenfeng, Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu and Moonshot AI CEO Yang Zhilin.

Khanna also wrote separately to Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton, seeking two formal assessments from the US intelligence community on the threat posed by increasingly powerful AI.

His intervention follows a September 23 congressional hearing that examined the possibility of a binding, enforceable and verifiable US-China agreement to address catastrophic AI risks.

Khanna is seeking information from the three Chinese companies on five areas, including recursive self-improvement, artificial general intelligence and superintelligence, emergency “kill switches”, model testing and international verification.

The companies are being pressed on whether they are developing, or intend to develop, AI systems capable of recursively improving themselves and what safeguards would prevent humans from losing control of such systems. Khanna also wants details of their plans and timelines for developing artificial general intelligence or superintelligence, along with mechanisms capable of disabling highly advanced AI systems if humans lose control.

He also sought information on how the companies test their models before release, including whether testing takes place in air-gapped environments and whether systems are screened for capabilities that could pose threats to humanity, including the development of dangerous biological capabilities.

Another focus is international verification. Khanna wants to know whether Chinese AI laboratories would participate in US-China technical working groups to develop technologies for verifying compliance with a future international AI agreement and whether they would permit independent inspections.

“Simply put, it is clear we cannot gamble the future of humanity on whether AI companies – including Chinese companies like yours – will responsibly self-regulate,” Khanna wrote.

Khanna had previously asked DeepSeek, Alibaba and Moonshot AI to join American AI laboratories in a commitment to “pace the frontier” by slowing development of increasingly advanced systems until safeguards could catch up.

The Chinese companies did not respond by the September 22 deadline.

In his latest letters, Khanna criticized the companies over what he described as their involvement in human rights abuses, censorship, support for China’s military and intelligence services, and illicit distillation of US models.

“With every refusal by your companies to participate in this effort to seek a verifiable global slowdown of AI development to benefit all of humanity, you only strengthen the case for a binding and enforceable AI treaty between our governments,” he wrote.

Khanna is simultaneously seeking an assessment from the US intelligence community of America’s ability to respond if control of an advanced AI system were lost.

He also wants an intelligence assessment of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s and the Chinese Communist Party’s understanding of catastrophic AI risks, including misalignment and the possible use of advanced systems to facilitate biological, chemical or nuclear harm.

Khanna has urged US intelligence agencies to develop capabilities to monitor Chinese frontier AI laboratories. He has also proposed joint US-China technical working groups involving leading scientists to develop verification technologies for an eventual international agreement.

“History will look back at this moment, the choices made by humanity as we potentially approach the Rubicon of superintelligence or AGI, and either celebrate our foresight or condemn our inaction,” Khanna wrote. (IANS)