AdvertisementEast AsiaFILE PHOTO: Chinese President Xi Jinping waves as he arrives at the opening ceremony for the World AI Conference in Shanghai, China, July 17, 2026. Ng Han Guan/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo10 Sep 2026 04:22AM Bookmark Bookmark WhatsApp Telegram Facebook Twitter Email LinkedInAdd CNA as a trusted source to help Google better understand and surface our content in search results.Read a summary of this article on FAST.Get bite-sized news via a newcards interface. Give it a try.Click here to return to FAST Tap here to return to FASTFAST BEIJING: China said on Wednesday (Sep 9) that US accusations of Chinese labs stealing the capabilities of American models were "groundless", as the two countries race for tech supremacy.The US cyber defense agency released an advisory on Tuesday accusing top Chinese AI labs including DeepSeek and Moonshot AI of systematically stealing the capabilities "through industrial-scale knowledge distillation campaigns".It came ahead of an expected meeting this month between President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the White House, where AI could be an important discussion topic.China hit back on Wednesday, calling the accusations "groundless".Show MoreShow Less"The US approach is a typical case of using the crackdown on distillation as a pretext to achieve industrial monopoly," the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.The US accusations are a "case of double standards", it added.China's trade booms as focus turns to expected Trump-Xi summitDistillation is where an AI model is trained to mimic the output of a larger, more capable one.The method is widely used across the industry, but Washington says Chinese firms have deployed it at scale to illicitly copy American systems.The US advisory also detailed how DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, Alibaba, MiniMax, StepFun and Z.AI allegedly used millions of exchanges and requests to steal the capabilities of US models from the likes of OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and xAI.Chinese companies that adopt this strategy "see significantly shorter AI development timelines and reduced financial expenditures in training a frontier model", the advisory said.These actions, taken "likely with Chinese government awareness", have occurred since at least late 2024, it said.AFP contacted the Chinese companies apart from StepFun, which was not immediately reachable. Moonshot AI declined to comment.China starts production of home-grown immersion DUV chipmaking tools: SourceCommentary: China is betting on spreading AI faster than the US can contain itAlibaba unveils its largest AI model yet, DeepSeek's latest model is ultra-low costTrump is under pressure to respond to the increasing success of Chinese AI models that many companies prefer to the more powerful, but pricier, US versions from Anthropic or OpenAI.In July, dozens of startups wrote a letter to the Trump administration urging it to think twice against any outright ban or strict curbs on foreign-made AI models, saying this should only be considered for government use of the technology.That month, Beijing also turned the tables by accusing US AI of using Chinese examples to train their models.Asked about the accusations at a regular briefing on Wednesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said the United States should "refrain from making unfounded accusations against and smearing China"."The development of artificial intelligence in China is the result of achieving high-level self-reliance and strength in science and technology," she said."Both China and the United States are major countries in the field of AI. We should strengthen cooperation."Source: AFP/fsNewsletterWeek in ReviewSubscribe to our Chief Editor’s Week in ReviewOur chief editor shares analysis and picks of the week's biggest news every Saturday.Sign up for our newslettersGet our pick of top stories and thought-provoking articles in your inboxSubscribe hereGet the CNA appStay updated with notifications for breaking news and our best storiesDownload hereGet WhatsApp alertsJoin our channel for the top reads for the day on your preferred chat appJoin hereAlso worth readingContent is loading...