US accuses Chinese AI firms of ‘malicious’ copying of AI technology

The U.S. government on Tuesday ​accused Chinese artificial intelligence companies ​of maliciously copying technology from American AI firms, potentially complicating ​relations ahead of a planned meeting between leaders of the world’s two biggest economies later this month.

The Chinese companies copied U.S. AI labs’ intellectual property through a technique known ‌as distillation, according ⁠to ⁠a statement from U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials. Distillation is the process of training ​smaller AI models using output from larger, more expensive ones as part of an effort ​to lower the costs of training a new AI tool.