House investigating Airbnb over Chinese AI models

House Republicans have launched an investigation into U.S. companies’ use of Chinese-developed artificial intelligence, starting with a probe into Airbnb and Anysphere, the parent company of Cursor.

In letters sent Thursday to the companies, the Republican chairs of the House Committee of Homeland Security and House Select Committee on China said their joint investigation is looking into the growing national security risks posed by Chinese AI models.

In their letter to Anysphere, Reps. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) and John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) raised concerns about Cursor’s new model, Composer 2, after an independent developer discovered the model was built on systems from Moonshot AI, a Beijing-based firm backed by Alibaba Group.

Moonshot AI, according to the lawmakers, was one of three China-based firms that conducted “coordinated campaigns to extract advanced capabilities” from American AI systems. The other firms of concern were DeepSeek and MiniMax, the letter states.

“When capabilities are stripped out through distillation and repackaged without equivalentsafeguards, the resulting models may become available to hostile state........

© The Hill