White House adviser accuses China's Moonshot AI of stealing model capabilities
A White House adviser has accused Beijing-based Moonshot AI of carrying out a large-scale effort to steal the capabilities of leading US artificial intelligence models. Michael Kratsios, the science and technology adviser to President Donald Trump, said the company used a technique known as distillation to extract answers from a stronger model and apply them to its own Kimi K3 system. He also said Moonshot may have used restricted Nvidia servers to train its models.
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Kratsios said on social media that the US government has information suggesting Moonshot AI distilled capabilities from Anthropic's Fable AI for the development of Kimi K3. The model drew international attention after it was unveiled last week, with some observers saying it had narrowed the gap between Western and Chinese AI systems. Moonshot has said Kimi K3 can rival top US technology, but the company has not publicly responded to the latest allegations in the material provided.
The claims come amid growing US scrutiny of Chinese AI companies and the technology supply chain that supports them. Washington restricted exports of Nvidia's most advanced chips in 2022 over concerns they could be used by the Chinese military, and officials have since stepped up efforts to curb smuggling of the hardware. Kratsios said Moonshot was likely to have used servers powered by Nvidia's GB300 Grace Blackwell computing platform, which would place the allegation at the centre of wider tensions over access to advanced computing power.
The issue matters because distillation allegations go to the heart of a broader dispute over intellectual property, competition and national security in artificial intelligence. The US has increasingly framed advanced AI development as a strategic domain, while Chinese firms have sought to close the performance gap with American rivals. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said a day earlier that the US would examine whether Chinese AI models had stolen capabilities from American competitors, and he warned that sanctions could be considered if companies crossed the line into what he called industrial-scale distillation attacks.
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The Chinese government has not yet issued a public response to the latest allegations, although it has previously said the country's AI development is the result of its own dedication and effort as well as international cooperation. The timing is also notable because Trump is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in September, adding another layer of sensitivity to the dispute. The allegations are likely to intensify pressure on both governments as they weigh technology controls, market access and the rules governing AI development.
What remains unclear is whether the US government will provide evidence publicly, whether Moonshot will respond in detail, and whether any formal action will follow. It is also not clear how the claims relate to the company's access to Nvidia hardware or what specific restrictions, if any, were breached. For now, the case adds to a widening confrontation over AI capability, chip access and alleged intellectual property theft between the US and China.
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