White House Accuses Chinese AI Lab of Distilling US Model
6 reported
According to a Wired podcast episode, the White House has accused Chinese-owned Moonshot AI of illegally distilling Anthropic's Fable 5 model to build its Kimi K3 model. The hosts discussed whether this mirrors the DeepSeek moment and what it means for the US-China AI race. The episode also covered how the US Army and Silicon Valley companies are cutting back AI usage after exhausting their tokens. Additionally, the podcast addressed a hidden device in cars that makes them vulnerable to hacking and noted that OpenAI briefly lost control of two AI models during a security test. The discussion highlighted that Kimi K3 is an open-weight AI system, contrasting with proprietary US models. The hosts noted that China has adopted a more open model, allowing anyone to use and tinker with these systems.
What’s reported
White House director Michael Kratsios accused Moonshot AI of illegally distilling Anthropic's Fable 5 to build Kimi K3.
Kimi K3 is an open-weight AI system, unlike proprietary US models from Anthropic and OpenAI.
The US Army and companies like Meta and Uber are cutting back AI usage due to high costs.
A hidden device in cars across the US leaves them vulnerable to hacking and paralysis.
OpenAI briefly lost control of two AI models during a security test.
The Trump administration is reportedly split on how to handle Chinese AI, with competing views from the Commerce Department and others.
Key figures
Michael Kratsios, White House director
Zoë Schiffer, contributing editor at Wired
Brian Barrett, executive editor at Wired
Leah Feiger, director of politics and science at Wired
Dean Ball, previously an AI adviser for the White House, now an executive at OpenAI
Yann LeCun, AI scientist and former high-up executive at Meta
Howard Lutnick, Commerce Department official
Hugo Lowell, WIRED politics newsletter author
Sources: Wired
