Virtually out of nowhere, Chinese-owned DeepSeek soared to the top of app stores — spooking financial markets and plummeting tech stocks.

Americans nationally could be found prompting it for politically censored content while businesses and lawmakers sought answers, particularly on key questions.

For example, is DeepSeek truly comparable to American-generated Large Language Models (LLMs) by companies like OpenAI, and is it indeed developed at a fraction of the cost?

Does it require more computing than alleged, and what does this suggest about U.S. policy toward containing Chinese tech advancement?

While many questions remain unanswered, it's clear that America must remain vigilant in its approach to AI and broader technological advancements.

Our methods to control China's access to advanced tech are openly being ignored or sidestepped, suggesting that the race for global supremacy in tech may be closer than we think, with stark national security consequences.

Once the dust settled on the knee-jerk reaction to DeepSeek, one thing was made abundantly clear — the AI platform is sending heaps of U.S. data to our biggest adversary.

According to a recent WIRED report, "all the conversations and questions you send to DeepSeek, along with the answers that it generates, are being sent to China or can be."

It should come as no surprise that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) then has free access to data collected by "private" companies based in China.

Additionally, as quickly as the app could be downloaded, reports of a malicious attack began to surface. Government prohibitions followed suit — from NASA to the U.S. Navy and from the State of Texas to Taiwan and Italy.

More recently, Australia announced a ban on DeepSeek from all government systems and devices, citing national security threats. India is reviewing similar actions and warning government employees not to use the application.

This series of events and national security experts' concerns should alarm Americanas.

The new administration and Congress should also take every step to protect our national security amid the global push for AI and technological innovation.

One area that has yet to be addressed and potentially leaves the U.S. vulnerable is the use of RISC-V technology.

While not created for general use like DeepSeek, RISC V is also open source and acts as the brains — the architectures — behind semiconductor chips that are essential components to any piece of technology — from the phone that you are currently reading this article with to CPUs that control critical infrastructure systems.

There is just one problem: China has significant control and influence over the direction of RISC-V and could potentially use it as a trojan horse in malicious actions against the U.S., or other nations.

Additionally, RISC-V's open-source nature means that anyone, including foreign adversaries, can use and modify the architecture.

This means that our best and brightest in the U.S. may contribute to technology falling into the wrong hands. China, at least, is taking advantage of the loophole.

There have already been reports of RISC-V chips being developed for military purposes by Beijing-based military institutions.

Additionally, more than $1 billion in funding has been provided to RISC-V startups in China. Virtually every major Chinese technology company is developing some type of product based on RISC-V.

In other words, they are blatantly circumventing U.S. policy and taking matters into their own hands — something the Trump administration should take seriously.

With such a complex global supply chain, regulating and implementing security controls on chips and intellectual property is no easy task.

Nevertheless, the recent DeepSeek news can and should act as a "wake-up call" for those in the national security community.

DeepSeek will not be the first tech surprise of the year. But it proves that products and services designed with open-source models have significant vulnerabilities.

Luckily, we have a president and Congress with a remit to take real action on China.

They are already investigating the national security implications of DeepSeek.

However, we should not continuously operate with such a reactionary mindset.

Instead of keeping with the status quo, they should take a fresh look at policy levers such as export and import restrictions so that technologies can no longer catch us off guard.

While DeepSeek may have only gained access to user data, there is no telling what it might be used for — and the next tech invasion may not be so friendly.

John Burnett is the host of the First Edition Show on Newsmax2. He is an adjunct assistant professor at New York University and the founder of 1 Empire Group. Read John Burnett's Reports — More Here.