Beijing says US firms train AI models on Chinese examples
"It is understood that many American artificial intelligence enterprises have distilled Chinese models during their research, development and training processes," says the Chinese commerce ministry.
· CNA · JoinRead a summary of this article on FAST.
Get bite-sized news via a new
cards interface. Give it a try.
Click here to return to FAST Tap here to return to FAST
FAST
BEIJING: Beijing accused US artificial intelligence companies on Monday (Jul 27) of using Chinese examples to train their models, days after Washington threatened sanctions on Chinese firms for allegedly stealing American technology.
"It is understood that many American artificial intelligence enterprises have distilled Chinese models during their research, development and training processes," the Chinese commerce ministry said in a statement.
Distillation is a process in which an AI model is trained to mimic the output of a larger, more capable one.
The method is widely used across the industry, but US officials say Chinese firms have deployed it at scale to illicitly copy proprietary American systems.
CNA Games
Guess Word
Crack the word, one row at a time
Buzzword
Create words using the given letters
Mini Sudoku
Tiny puzzle, mighty brain teaser
Mini Crossword
Small grid, big challenge
Word Search
Spot as many words as you can
Show More
Show Less
The Chinese ministry said the US accusations "lack factual basis and legal grounds, adopt double standards in practice, and constitute typical acts of artificial intelligence hegemonism".
"China will take all necessary measures to firmly safeguard its legitimate and lawful rights and interests," it added.
Last week, a senior White House official accused Chinese startup Moonshot AI of covertly copying Anthropic's most advanced model to build its Kimi K3.
The latest Moonshot model stunned the US tech industry upon its release, setting off a fresh discussion over the AI rivalry with China.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last week threatened sanctions against China, amid reports the US is also weighing a ban or curbs on foreign-made open-source models that are often built through distillation.
Newsletter
Week in Review
Subscribe to our Chief Editor’s Week in Review
Our chief editor shares analysis and picks of the week's biggest news every Saturday.
Newsletter
Morning Brief
Subscribe to CNA’s Morning Brief
An automated curation of our top stories to start your day.
Sign up for our newsletters
Get our pick of top stories and thought-provoking articles in your inbox
Get the CNA app
Stay updated with notifications for breaking news and our best stories
Get WhatsApp alerts
Join our channel for the top reads for the day on your preferred chat app