NewsUS · United States
US accuses Chinese AI firms of 'industrial-scale' theft of trade secrets
edition.cnn.com/2026/09/08/politics/us-accuses-china-of-stealing-ai-technology
US federal agencies allege Chinese AI companies are conducting 'industrial-scale' theft of American trade secrets through 'distillation' techniques. The FBI, NSA, and CISA claim Chinese firms use this method to extract proprietary functionalities from advanced US AI models. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent threatened sanctions against Chinese companies involved in such practices. Anthropic accused three Chinese labs of generating 16 million exchanges through fraudulent accounts to extract capabilities from its Claude AI model. The advisory highlights growing tensions between the US and China over AI technology.