Xi Jinping and Donald Trump Meet Over AI Theft Claims

President Xi Jinping is visiting Washington to meet with President Donald Trump to address allegations that Chinese companies are surreptitiously copying American artificial intelligence technologies. The discussions center on claims that firms such as Alibaba, Z.ai, and Moonshot are using a technique called distillation to train their own models using outputs from American systems.

American AI companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, have accused Chinese firms of this practice. While some experts suggest these claims are overblown, noting that distillation still requires significant independent computing power and talent to be effective, the issue has evolved into a geopolitical flashpoint.

As the U.S. pushes for protections against technology theft, American AI firms are managing their own legal crises. Anthropic recently paid a $1.5 billion settlement regarding the illegal use of copyrighted books, and OpenAI remains embroiled in a lawsuit with The New York Times over the use of published articles for model training.