Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On The Need To Expand Bipartisan Efforts To Meet AI’s Sputnik Moment For America

Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor to urge continued and more robust bipartisan efforts on AI to ensure that the United States maintains its technological lead in the wake of China’s announcement on the DeepSeek AI model. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 into orbit in 1957, it ignited the space race between the world’s two greatest powers – and America won.

Yesterday, we faced a similar inflection point, between China and the United States. This time, the project is not like Sputnik or landing on the moon – the prize is something so important: artificial intelligence. The recent news from DeepSeek is being called AI’s Sputnik moment for America.

DeepSeek unleashed something few could have imagined, an AI chatbot that runs more efficiently and was developed at much lower cost than U.S. AI chatbots. Within hours of DeepSeek’s announcement, their AI chatbot was the number one downloaded free app on Apple’s app store.

And DeepSeek’s announcement makes it all but official: China is catching up with the U.S. on AI. It is a wakeup call that Congress desperately needs.

If America falls behind China on AI, we will fall behind everywhere: economically, militarily, scientifically, educationally, everywhere.

China’s innovation with DeepSeek is jarring, but it’s nothing compared to what will happen if China beats the U.S. on the ultimate goal of AGI, artificial general intelligence. We cannot, we must not allow that to happen.

This is precisely why I made AI a top priority in the last Congress, with American innovation as my north star, and I will continue to do so. What we do now on AI – the actions we take, the ways and amounts we invest, the innovation we spur – will definitely define the next decade of this technology.

I hope our bipartisan efforts on AI – which made some progress last year – will continue in an even more robust way this year. I stand ready to work with Republicans – this should be bipartisan – to pass the legislation and make the investments necessary for the U.S. to win.

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