Exclusive: Senators interrogate AI firms on China safeguards

companies in critical sectors, the senators write.Zoom in: Identical letters sent to the CEOs of Amazon, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Safe Superintelligence Inc., Thinking Machines Lab and xAI ask for responses to nine questions by May 20.One question zeroes in on insider risk: What is Amazon's current approach to personnel vetting, insider threat detection, and ongoing monitoring for privileged access roles? the letter to CEO Andy Jassy asks.How many PRC nationals does Amazon employ? How many have direct or indirect privileged access to weights or weight-adjacent assets, and how has that number changed over time? reads another question.Between the lines: The senators also indicate they want to work collaboratively with companies to identify and plug potential security gaps.What support or engagement from Congress or the U.S. government would be useful in securing AI technology, trade secrets, and research from the PRC?Zoom out: Congress has ramped up oversight, including classified briefings with leading AI firms, as Axios reported Tuesday.U.S. officials have warned that China is conducting industrial-scale efforts to extract American AI capabilities, underscoring bipartisan concerns about espionage and technological competition. Lawmakers have also increasingly engaged directly with companies like OpenAI, Anthropic and Nvidia on how their technologies could be secured against foreign access.