The U.S. government has accused several Chinese artificial intelligence companies of copying technology from American AI firms, potentially adding new tension to relations between Washington and Beijing ahead of a planned meeting between their leaders later this month.
U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials said Chinese companies had used a technique known as distillation to develop their AI systems using outputs from American models. The process allows smaller AI models to learn from larger and more expensive models, helping reduce the cost of training new AI tools.
Six Chinese companies, including DeepSeek, Moonshot AI and Alibaba, were accused of using versions of American AI models to speed up the development of their own AI products. U.S. officials said the companies targeted models from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and SpaceX, and claimed the activity was likely carried out with the awareness of the Chinese government.
“China-based AI companies are engaging in aggressive, malicious and targeted distillation activities at an industrial scale,” U.S. officials said.
The accusations come as President Donald Trump’s administration prepares for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s planned visit to the United States in late September. The two countries are also preparing for an AI safety dialogue expected to take place in mid-September.
China rejected the allegations. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said China’s progress in artificial intelligence was driven by efforts to achieve a high level of scientific and technological self-reliance.
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U.S. Accuses DeepSeek and Other Chinese AI Firms of Copying American Technology
