Is China’s AI Rise Deepening the US Technology Security Battle?

The United States has accused Chinese artificial intelligence companies of systematically copying technology from American AI firms, escalating an already tense technology relationship between the world’s two largest economies. US law enforcement and intelligence officials allege that Chinese companies are using AI distillation, a technique that allows smaller models to learn from the outputs of larger and more expensive models. While distillation itself is a legitimate AI development technique, US officials are alleging that Chinese firms are using it to reproduce capabilities from American systems on an industrial scale. The accusations come at a particularly sensitive moment, with President Donald…