China Hits Back at US AI Claims        09/09 06:27

   

   BANGKOK (AP) -- China hit back Wednesday against U.S. claims that Chinese 
artificial intelligence developers are engaged in "aggressive, malicious" 
industrial-scale efforts to extract capabilities from frontier American AI 
systems.

   The FBI, National Security Agency and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure 
Security Agency issued a joint cybersecurity advisory Tuesday that said Chinese 
AI developers had extracted, or "distilled," capabilities from U.S. frontier AI 
models like Anthropic's Claude, OpenAI's GPT, Google's Gemini and SpaceXAI's 
Grok "since at least late 2024."

   The advisory named China's DeepSeek, Alibaba, Moonshot AI and Z.ai and said 
the activities were done "likely with Chinese government awareness."

   In Beijing, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged the U.S. to "refrain from 
making unfounded accusations or smears" against China. It added that both China 
and the U.S. are major AI powers and should strengthen cooperation.

   "China's AI development is the result of high-level technological 
self-reliance and strength," ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a regular 
press conference. "We maintain that all parties should strengthen cooperation 
to promote AI development that is open, inclusive, universally beneficial and 
oriented toward the common good."

   AI governance is expected to figure in planned talks later this month 
between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

   The U.S. advisory said Chinese AI companies "route distillation requests 
through multiple pathways to gain unauthorized access, consequently violating 
U.S. AI companies' terms of use."

   "China-based AI companies are engaging in aggressive, malicious, and 
targeted distillation activities at an industrial scale that extract restricted 
proprietary functionalities and capabilities of U.S. frontier AI models," it 
said.

   The agencies also accused Chinese AI companies of achieving cost savings for 
their distillation campaigns "through bulk procurement of the U.S. AI 
companies' premium subscriptions shared across teams of developers."

   Chinese AI models like Moonshot's powerful Kimi K3 have been making inroads 
in the U.S., among other places. They are seen by some as more efficient and 
affordable alternatives for American frontier models, even as U.S.-led 
restrictions have barred China from access to some of the world's most advanced 
technologies.

   This week's joint advisory contains more details than earlier U.S. 
accusations against Chinese AI developers. Anthropic and OpenAI also have made 
similar accusations. Beijing has maintained that the U.S claims are groundless.

   On Tuesday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told an event at the 
Southern Methodist University's Cox School of Business in Dallas, Texas, that 
China can "never get ahead" of the U.S. in AI.

   "The Chinese distill our models and they can never get ahead of us," Bessent 
said.

   DeepSeek, Alibaba, Moonshot AI and Z.ai did not immediately respond to a 
request for comment.