China accused of 'industrial-scale' theft of US AI tech
What's the story
The White House has accused China of stealing intellectual property from American artificial intelligence (AI) labs on an "industrial-scale." The practice exploits US innovation and is a major development in international technology relations. The Financial Times first reported the news, citing a memo by Michael Kratsios, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Accusations detailed
'Deliberate, industrial-scale campaigns'
In his memo, Kratsios said that "The US government has information indicating that foreign entities, principally based in China, are engaged in deliberate, industrial-scale campaigns to distill US frontier AI systems." He claimed these campaigns are "Leveraging tens of thousands of proxy accounts to evade detection and using jailbreaking techniques to expose proprietary information, these coordinated campaigns systematically extract capabilities from American AI models, exploiting American expertise and innovation,". The White House plans to crack down on this practice.
Denial issued
Chinese Embassy denies allegations
In response to the allegations, the Chinese Embassy in Washington denied "the baseless allegations," and reiterated that Beijing "attaches great importance to the protection of intellectual property rights." The memo comes just weeks ahead of a planned meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing. It is likely to escalate tensions in an ongoing tech war between the two superpowers.
Technique explained
China accused of using 'distillation' technique
The technique at the center of the allegations is called "distillation." It involves training smaller AI models on the output of larger ones, to cut down on costs. While this process is common in AI model training, companies like Anthropic and OpenAI have previously claimed it has been misused to replicate their models' capabilities. DeepSeek, a Chinese AI start-up, has been accused of such practices.
Action plan
Steps to counter alleged campaign
The Trump administration plans to take several steps in response to the alleged campaign. These include informing US AI companies about attempts at "unauthorized, industrial-scale distillation," and improving coordination between private companies. The administration also plans to explore ways to "hold foreign actors accountable" for such campaigns, and work with the private sector on best practices for detecting and defending against these activities.