US official accuses Chinese AI firm of distilling Anthropic model
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Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, accused Beijing-based Moonshot AI of distilling Anthropic's Fable model to develop its K3 model. Kratsios said the company used a sophisticated platform to conduct large-scale distillation and may have used GB300 servers acquired via Thailand. He did not provide evidence for the claim.
The Allegation
Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, posted on X on Wednesday that Moonshot AI had distilled Anthropic's recently released Fable model to create its K3 model. He wrote that the company developed an internal platform to conduct large-scale distillation against U.S. models, switching between access methods to avoid detection. Kratsios also claimed Moonshot AI used GB300 servers, either newly acquired or through Thailand, to train its models.
Industry Context
Frontier AI companies in the U.S. have pressed policymakers to make it harder to copy advanced commercial models, calling it intellectual property theft. Piyush Sharma, CEO of Tuskira, said distillation allows developers to replicate many core capabilities. He cited a previous case where Anthropic accused Chinese company Alibaba of distilling Claude using 25,000 fraudulent accounts and 28.8 million interactions over six weeks.
Moonshot AI's Claims
Moonshot AI describes its Kimi K3 model as the first open 2.8 trillion parameter model, promoting lower token costs while delivering near-frontier performance. The company said on its website that K3 demonstrated frontier-level performance across its evaluation suite, though it still trails proprietary models like Claude Fable 5 and GPT 5.6 Sol. Moonshot AI did not respond to a request for comment.
What's Next
The White House has not announced any specific actions against Moonshot AI. It remains unclear whether the U.S. will impose sanctions or export controls in response to the alleged distillation.
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US official accuses Chinese AI firm of distilling Anthropic model
