US Says Chinese Firms Copied American AI

The US government accused six Chinese companies, including DeepSeek, Moonshot AI and Alibaba, on Tuesday of maliciously copying technology from US firms. According to security and intelligence officials, they used outputs from models developed by Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and SpaceX to accelerate the development of their own products, likely with the knowledge of the Chinese government.

The companies reportedly used a technique known as “distillation”, in which smaller models are trained using the outputs of larger, more expensive systems. The method can reduce the cost of developing new tools.

US officials described the Chinese companies’ actions as “aggressive, harmful, and targeted” activities carried out on an industrial scale. They said such practices could also strengthen China’s military and cyber capabilities, which could be used against the United States and its allies.

Beijing rejected the accusations. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said the country’s progress was based on achieving a high level of scientific and technological self-sufficiency. China called on Washington to stop making false accusations and smearing the country.

The claims come ahead of President Xi Jinping’s planned September visit to the United States and talks between the two countries on the risks of artificial intelligence.

(Reuters, bak)