A senior White House official has accused the Chinese artificial intelligence startup Moonshot AI of using distillation techniques to pirate capabilities from Anthropic PBC’s most powerful models. Michael Kratsios stated that the company distilled Anthropic’s Fable model to facilitate the development of its K3 model.
Additionally, the official accused Moonshot AI of breaking US export controls to build Kimi K3. It is alleged that the company obtained restricted Nvidia chips and leaned on American models during the process.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has warned that the U.S. government could sanction Chinese AI companies following these accusations. These allegations emerge as Chinese AI companies face increased scrutiny from the U.S. government.