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US accuses Chinese AI firms of maliciously copying US technology
US officials alleged six Chinese companies used “distillation” to train faster AI models, with targets including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and SpaceX.
The US government accused Chinese artificial intelligence companies of maliciously copying technology from US AI firms, a development that could add friction ahead of a planned meeting between leaders of the United States and China later this month, according to an account of US law enforcement and intelligence officials.
The officials said the companies relied on a technique called distillation, which involves training smaller AI models using output from larger, more expensive models to reduce training costs. They alleged the Chinese firms used variants of American-made AI models to speed up the training of their own products.
US officials named six companies, including DeepSeek, Moonshot AI and Alibaba, and said their activities were likely conducted with awareness of the Chinese government. They also said the targeted models came from Anthropic, OpenAI, Alphabet’s Google and SpaceX.
The officials described China-based AI firms as engaging in “aggressive, malicious and targeted distillation activities at an industrial scale,” according to the statement.