US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed that China “can never get ahead” of America in artificial intelligence, in part due to its “central planning”, as three government agencies accused Beijing of maliciously copying technology from its leading firms.
“The technical word for stealing and copying American AI models is distillation. So, the Chinese distil our models and they can never get ahead of us,” he said on Tuesday during a discussion at the Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business in Dallas.
“It’s kind of like if you’re looking over someone’s shoulder, copying their homework, you can never get a higher grade than they do.”
Model distillation is a widely used AI training technique in which a smaller model learns from the output of larger ones.
The remarks came weeks before Bessent is expected to spearhead US bilateral talks on AI governance with his Chinese counterparts ahead of President Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington later this month.
The rhetoric from Bessent is in sharp contrast with recent remarks from President Donald Trump, who last week said he was excited about the Chinese leader’s visit.