The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a joint statement accusing several Chinese artificial intelligence companies of using outputs from American AI systems to train their own models.
The agencies named DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, Alibaba, MiniMax and StepFun as firms that relied on the outputs of U.S. AI models for training their products. According to the statement, the companies employed a technique called distillation: a smaller, less costly model is trained using the responses of a larger, more advanced model, which can significantly reduce development costs and accelerate product rollout.
U.S. officials said the technique was applied "at industrial scale, aggressively and in a targeted way," and indicated it was likely carried out with the knowledge of the Chinese government. The agencies highlighted that distillation enables the rapid transfer of capabilities from advanced models into smaller, more economical systems.
Timing and diplomatic context
The allegations arrived at a sensitive moment: the Trump administration is preparing for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s planned visit to the United States late in September. The two countries also scheduled a discussion on AI security risks for mid-September, making the joint statement relevant to ongoing diplomatic and security talks.
Why this matters
The use of distillation raises issues around intellectual property, competition and national security. If companies in one country widely replicate the functionality of models developed in another country, it can accelerate technological catch-up and reduce the need for native development, but it also creates risks concerning data usage, ownership rights and the control of dual-use technologies with military or security implications.
Source and editorial note
This article is based on reporting by Reuters. An AI assistant contributed to the preparation of the piece; the final content was edited and verified by a journalist.
Tags
China, National Security Agency, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, Alibaba, MiniMax, StepFun, distillation, artificial intelligence, Xi Jinping, diplomacy
