A White House adviser has accused China’s Moonshot AI of a “large scale” effort to steal the capabilities of top US artificial intelligence (AI) models. US President Donald Trump’s Science and Technology adviser Michael Kratsios said Moonshot AI carried out the campaign through what is known as distillation - when a weaker AI model extracts answers from a stronger one.
Moonshot also gained access to restricted cutting-edge Nvidia servers to train its models, Kratsios said in a social post, external on Wednesday. The BBC has contacted Moonshot, Anthropic, the White House and Nvidia for comment.
Kratsios said on X that the US government has information that Moonshot AI “distilled” capabilities from Anthropic’s Fable AI for the development of its K3 model. Kimi K3 gained attention around the world after it was unveiled last week, with many believing it to have narrowed the gap between Western and Chinese AI models. Moonshot said its K3 model is able to rival top US technology.
What allegations has the White House made?
Kratsios said the government believes Moonshot AI used distillation to copy capabilities from Anthropic’s Fable AI and that it also accessed restricted Nvidia servers. His comments added to rising US concern over how Chinese AI companies may be developing competitive models.
Why is Kimi K3 attracting attention?
Kimi K3 drew global attention after its unveiling last week because many observers saw it as evidence that Chinese AI firms are closing the gap with Western rivals. Moonshot has said the model can rival leading US technology.
How does this fit into broader US scrutiny of Chinese AI?
Kratsios’ allegations came just a day after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US would examine whether Chinese AI models have stolen the capabilities from American rivals.
“We've seen a lot of talk about open-source models coming and threatening the large language models in the US,” Bessent told Fox Business on Tuesday.
“If we see, especially, that overseas models are stealing from our great companies, we have the ability to sanction them,” he added.
The increased scrutiny by the US of Chinese AI companies also comes as Trump is expected to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in September.
Key Facts
- Michael Kratsios accused Moonshot AI of a “large scale” effort to steal capabilities from top US AI models.
- He said the company used “distillation” and accessed restricted cutting-edge Nvidia servers.
- Kratsios said the US has information that Moonshot AI “distilled” capabilities from Anthropic’s Fable AI for Kimi K3.
- Kimi K3 was unveiled last week and Moonshot says it can rival top US technology.
- Trump is expected to meet Xi Jinping in September.
