US House Committees Probe Airbnb and Anysphere Over Chinese AI Model Use
Two US House committees launched an investigation into Airbnb and Anysphere's use of Chinese AI models, citing national security risks including potential data exposure and unauthorized extraction of US AI capabilities. The probe focuses on Airbnb's deployment of Alibaba's Qwen model for customer service and Anysphere's use of a Moonshot AI model in its Cursor software.
What happened
The House Select Committee on China and House Homeland Security Committee jointly sent letters to Airbnb and Anysphere in April 2026 requesting information about their use of Chinese AI models, including why they chose these models and communications with Chinese AI companies.
Airbnb's customer service agent runs on Alibaba's Qwen model, which CEO Brian Chesky described in December 2025 as 'fast and cheap.' Anysphere's Cursor software is built on a model linked to Beijing-based Moonshot AI.
The committees expressed concerns about Chinese firms using 'adversarial model distillation' to extract capabilities from advanced US AI systems and repurposing them into cheaper models without safeguards.
Reported impact
Lawmakers stated that Airbnb and Anysphere's reliance on Chinese AI models threatens critical US infrastructure and puts American customers' data and businesses at risk.
Concerns were raised that Chinese AI systems may 'covertly censor and manipulate information pursuant to Chinese law' and that sensitive user data could be exposed to entities subject to Chinese law through external systems.
Index analysis
The investigation centers on national security risks including data exposure, censorship vulnerabilities, and the potential use of extracted US AI capabilities by hostile state actors and criminal organizations.
Lawmakers warned that billions of dollars in American AI research investment is being undermined by sustained extraction campaigns, and that stripped-down models could be repurposed for malicious uses.
Governance controls
The House committees requested detailed information from company leadership about their AI model choices and decision-making processes, with potential for employee summoning to in-person briefings.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.