China has issued a forceful rebuttal to US allegations that its leading artificial intelligence companies have engaged in 'industrial scale' theft of American AI models, dismissing the claims as an attempt to maintain a monopoly in the industry.
The response on Wednesday came after a joint advisory by the FBI, NSA, and CISA accused Chinese firms, including DeepSeek, Alibaba, and Moonshot AI, of distilling 'billions of tokens' from US models since at least late 2024, allegedly with the Chinese government's awareness.
China's Commerce Ministry, in a statement to the Associated Press, warned that if the US suppresses Chinese AI companies under the pretext of targeting distillation, China will take 'resolute countermeasures.' The ministry argued that distillation is a common practice in the AI industry, including by US companies, but American firms claim the scale of Chinese usage amounts to theft.
The US advisory claimed that 'the sheer scale of these campaigns and their sophistication indicate that distillation is not a supplement to these companies' AI model development, but the critical core of it.'
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning called on the US to 'refrain from making unfounded accusations or smears' against China, asserting that China's AI development is the result of 'high-level technological self-reliance and strength.'
The dispute comes just weeks before Chinese President Xi Jinping's scheduled visit to the US, where President Donald Trump is expected to host a summit on topics including AI. Xi may be accompanied by a large delegation of Chinese executives, as seen in past visits when Alibaba founder Jack Ma and Tesla CEO Elon Musk participated in similar meetings.
The Trump regime has taken a hardline stance against Chinese AI advancements, while China is investing nearly $300 billion into AI and robotics as a key economic driver. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, speaking in Dallas, asserted that China can 'never get ahead' of the US in AI, claiming that 'the Chinese distill our models and they can never get ahead of us.'
Source: www.aljazeera.com