Two House committees want DoorDash to explain why Chinese AI models might be touching your burrito order. The food delivery company joins a growing list of firms getting letters that basically ask "hey are you letting China see our data" in the most bureaucratic way possible.
DoorDash uses AI to predict delivery times and route drivers. Riveting stuff. The kind of technology that definitely requires congressional oversight because nothing says national security threat like knowing someone in Akron ordered mozzarella sticks at 2 AM.
The committees are concerned about Chinese AI models. Not the AI models themselves necessarily. Just that they're Chinese. As if the algorithm cares about geopolitics while calculating whether your Dasher should take the highway or surface streets.
Here's what lawmakers think happens: A Chinese-trained model processes your order data. That data somehow gets back to Beijing. The Communist Party now knows Americans eat too much Taco Bell. They weaponize this information. We lose the new Cold War because they figured out we're all lactose intolerant but refuse to stop.
DoorDash has not commented. Smart move. What are they supposed to say? "We promise the neural network routing your General Tso's chicken has no opinion on Taiwan"?
The investigation targets AI use broadly. DoorDash just happened to be delivering food while using the wrong country's machine learning. Bad timing. Like getting pulled over for a broken taillight while smuggling state secrets, except the state secrets are that you tip 12% and mark every order as "leave at door" to avoid human contact.
Congress will request information. DoorDash will provide information. Nothing will change. Your spring rolls will still arrive cold. But at least they'll arrive via a freedom-loving American algorithm that respects democracy and overcharges you in dollars, not yuan.
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