The Jakarta Post
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsUS accuses Chinese AI firms of 'malicious' copying of AI technology
The Chinese companies copied US AI labs’ intellectual property through a technique known as distillation, according to a statement from US law enforcement and intelligence officials.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Set as preferred source
A photo taken on April 1, 2025 shows the GPT chat logo on a laptop screen (right) next to the logo of Deepseek AI application on a smartphone screen in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany. (AFP/Kirill Kudryavtsev)
T
he US government on Tuesday accused Chinese artificial intelligence companies of maliciously copying technology from American AI firms, potentially complicating relations ahead of a planned meeting between leaders of the world's two biggest economies later this month.
The Chinese companies copied US AI labs’ intellectual property through a technique known as distillation, according to a statement from US law enforcement and intelligence officials. Distillation is the process of training smaller AI models using output from larger, more expensive ones as part of an effort to lower the costs of training a new AI tool.
US officials accused six Chinese companies, including DeepSeek, Moonshot AI and Alibaba, of tapping variants of American-made AI models to train their AI products more quickly. The companies did so "likely with Chinese government awareness," according to the statement from US officials, who added that the Chinese companies targeted AI models from Anthropic, OpenAI, Alphabet's Google and SpaceX.
"China-based AI companies are engaging in aggressive, malicious and targeted distillation activities at an industrial scale," the officials said.
US officials made the allegations as the administration of President Donald Trump prepares for Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to the US in late September. The US and China are also gearing up to discuss AI safety risks during a dialogue planned for mid-September, Reuters previously reported.
The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the distillation allegations.
The US made a similar accusation in April ahead of Trump's visit to Beijing.
The Tuesday statement alleged that the distillation not only reduces research and development costs for Chinese AI firms, but also enhances China's “military and cyberattack capabilities that could be used against the US and our allies.”
Reuters reported on July 31 that Chinese military researchers have used outputs from leading US AI models to train domestic Chinese AI systems and advance China's defense capabilities.
