In brief
The White House has expressed growing concern about alleged systematic theft of artificial intelligence technology by Chinese companies. An internal memo reveals plans to increase collaboration with U.S. AI firms to combat these actions. Measures include sharing intelligence, developing best practices, and exploring accountability for foreign entities involved in 'distillation' campaigns. The Chinese Embassy has denied these allegations, citing China's rapid progress in technology as a result of its own efforts and international cooperation.
The White House has said it will work more closely with US artificial intelligence (AI) firms to combat industrial-scale campaigns by foreign actors to steal advances in the technology.
Michael Kratsios, Director of Science and Technology Policy, wrote in an internal memo that the administration had new information indicating foreign entities, principally based in China were exploiting American firms.
Through a process called distilling, such firms are essentially copying AI technology developed by US companies, he said.
A representative of China's US embassy in Washington DC said its development was the result of its own dedication and effort as well as international cooperation.
In the memo, Kratsios said the aim was to systematically undermine American research and development and access proprietary information.
To mitigate malicious exploitation, the White House plans to:
- Share more information with US AI companies about tactics employed and actors involved in distillation campaigns.
- Work to better coordinate with companies to fight the attacks.
- Develop a set of best practices to identify, mitigate, and remediate them.
- Explore how the White House can hold foreign actors accountable for such distillation.
The memo did not detail any specific plans for action against foreign entities found to be undertaking distillation of US AI technology.
A White House spokesperson declined to comment beyond the memo.
A representative of China's US embassy in Washington DC took issue with the unjustified suppression of Chinese companies by the US in response to the memo.
China is not only the world's factory but is also becoming the world's innovation lab, the representative added.
China's development is the result of its own dedication and effort as well as international cooperation that delivers mutual benefits.
Distillation campaigns are typically carried out by firms that operate many thousands of individual accounts for a given AI chatbot or tool, allowing for normal user appearances.
These accounts then engage in coordinated attempts to jailbreak or otherwise expose information about AI models that is not meant to be public, which is saved and applied to their own AI model building and training.
As methods to detect and mitigate industrial-scale distillation grow more sophisticated, foreign entities who build their AI capabilities on such fragile foundations should have little confidence in the integrity and reliability of the models they produce, Kratsios said.
While Kratsios did not name any foreign entities, leading AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic have acknowledged such distillation activity.
Earlier this year, Anthropic described distillation attacks by three AI labs—DeepSeek, Moonshot, and MiniMax—all based in China.
OpenAI has also accused DeepSeek of copying its technology.
DeepSeek, released last year, quickly became popular among users; it cost only a few million dollars to create, a fraction of the spending of other AI firms aimed at building advanced models.
Last month, the DeepSeek chatbot suffered a major outage and is expected to release a new version soon.
US President Donald Trump is anticipated to visit China in May.
