Reuters: State Dept Warns Chinese Firms like DeepSeek Stole AI Models

According to a diplomatic cable seen by Reuters, the US State Department has ordered a worldwide campaign focusing on Chinese firms like DeepSeek for stealing IP from US AI labs. The move aims to 'warn of the risks of using AI models distilled from US proprietary models' and pave the way for potential government actions. Distillation is a process of using outputs from large, expensive models to train smaller ones at a fraction of the cost. DeepSeek, along with Moonshot AI and MiniMax, are named. The cable claims these distilled models lack the safety protocols of original systems. This comes ahead of President Trump's visit to Beijing to meet Xi Jinping, potentially escalating tech war tensions.