The White House Is Trying to Figure Out What to Do About Chinese AI

The Trump administration is debating how to respond to rapidly advancing Chinese AI models that are beginning to rival the most powerful American models. The White House has pushed for stricter controls on Chinese AI development, while the Commerce Department views those restrictions as unworkable. A key concern is "distillation," a practice where Chinese AI labs train their models by learning from U.S. models, which administration officials have described as intellectual property theft that could warrant sanctions. The debate has intensified after Chinese labs released new models and after a Chinese company allegedly carried out what was described as the largest known distillation attack against an American AI company.