China is copying U.S. AI models — American companies say it is costing them billions of dollars
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Rival U.S. firms are sharing information to detect so-called adversarial distillation attempts that violate their terms of service.
Google, OpenAI and Anthropic are sharing information to try to combat imitation versions of their products. (NurPhoto / Getty Images) By Shirin Ghaffary and Maggie Eastland April 7, 2026 8:12 AM PT Share via Close extra sharing options Email Facebook X LinkedIn Threads Reddit WhatsApp Copy Link URL Copied! Print Rivals OpenAI, Anthropic PBC, and Alphabet Inc.’s Google have begun working together to try to clamp down on Chinese competitors extracting results from cutting-edge U.S. artificial intelligence models to gain an edge in the global AI race. The firms are sharing information through the Frontier Model Forum, an industry nonprofit that the three tech companies founded with Microsoft Corp. in 2023, to detect so-called adversarial distillation attempts that violate their terms of service, according to people familiar with the matter. The rare collaboration underscores the severity of a concern raised by U.S. AI companies that some users, especially in China, are creating imitation versions of their products that could undercut them on price and siphon away customers while posing a national security risk. U.S. officials have estimated that unauthorized distillation costs Silicon Valley labs billions of dollars in annual profit, according to a person familiar with the findings who described them on condition of anonymity. Advertisement OpenAI confirmed it’s part of the information-sharing effort on adversarial distillation through the Frontier Model Forum and pointed to ...
