- US accuses China of stealing US AI models
- Chinese actors allegedly used proxy network and jailbreak techniques
- This accusation risks straining relations between the United States and China after a period of reward.
The White House has accused China of orchestrating a campaign to steal AI models from US developers on an “industrial scale”.
In a memo, Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said: “The U.S. government has information indicating that foreign entities, primarily based in China, are engaged in deliberate, industrial-scale campaigns to distil U.S. artificial intelligence systems. »
The accusations come on the eve of a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing next month.
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“Tens of thousands of proxies and jailbreak techniques”
“By exploiting tens of thousands of proxy accounts to evade detection and using jailbreaking techniques to expose proprietary information, these coordinated campaigns systematically extract the capabilities of U.S. AI models, exploiting American expertise and innovation,” the White House memo continued.
This is not the first time China has been accused of stealing US technology, with the superpower previously in the crosshairs for stealing aerospace secrets and industrial technology.
The memo strikes a different tone from previous accusations, with the White House stating: “There is nothing innovative about systematically extracting and copying innovations from American industry, and there is nothing about so-called open models that derive from malicious acts of exploitation.” »
Washington says it will take the following steps:
In response, the Chinese Embassy in Washington issued a statement saying it rejected “baseless allegations” and that Beijing “attaches great importance to the protection of intellectual property rights.”
The accusation risks straining U.S.-China relations ahead of next month’s meeting. Tensions are also likely to escalate as the US Congress passes “the largest export control increase in its history”, which aims to prevent China from accessing US technology, particularly high-powered chips.
Restrictions on the sale of powerful chips to China were eased in January, with the possibility that some of Nvidia’s most powerful chips could be sold on a case-by-case basis. But those exports have been called into question by Congress’ latest restrictions.
Nonetheless, China has proven capable of developing and training powerful AI models such as Deepseek and OpenClaw, both of which shook American AI developers as China was seen as being years behind the United States.
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