Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, wrote on X on April 23 that the United States has evidence that foreign entities, mainly based in China, are running “industrial-scale distillation campaigns” to steal U.S. AI and that Washington will take steps to protect American innovation. Distillation refers to training on large volumes of outputs from a high-performing AI model to boost another model’s performance.
A memo released the same day by the Office of Science and Technology Policy echoed that assessment, saying there is information that foreign entities primarily based in China are involved in deliberate, industrial-scale campaigns to distill America’s most advanced AI systems.
The White House said the entities used tens of thousands of fake or routed accounts to evade detection and used “jailbreaking” techniques to expose proprietary information, aiming to mimic core capabilities of U.S. AI models at low cost.
The administration signaled follow-up steps, saying it will share relevant information with U.S. AI companies and support coordinated private-sector responses. It also said it plans to develop best practices to identify, mitigate and recover from industrial-scale AI distillation activity and will consider ways to hold foreign actors accountable.
China pushed back. The Chinese Embassy in Washington told Reuters it opposes “groundless accusations” and said China values intellectual property protection. The announcement came ahead of a planned summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Reuters reported the issue could also affect whether Nvidia will be allowed to export AI semiconductors to China.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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