US warns China stealing AI secrets
Washington, June 27
US lawmakers have warned that China is intensifying efforts to acquire American artificial intelligence technology and other advanced innovations through economic espionage, cyber operations and commercial investments, describing the campaign as a growing threat to both national security and global technological leadership.
The warning came during a hearing of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, where former Acting Director of the Defence Intelligence Agency David Shedd said Beijing had built an extensive system to obtain American commercial and technological secrets.
"The campaign which blends cyber espionage, human intelligence, academic collaboration, and commercial investments has been instrumental in propelling China's rapid economic and military rise," Shedd told lawmakers.
He said China had transformed itself into a global technological power by combining cyber espionage, intelligence operations, academic partnerships and commercial investments to obtain sensitive technologies.
According to Shedd, Beijing's intelligence agencies target companies, universities and researchers working in sectors including artificial intelligence, telecommunications, biotechnology, quantum computing and advanced weapons systems.
"Corporate America, professors, academic researchers, are all fair targets," he said, adding that China's intelligence services had grown dramatically in size and capability.
The hearing also focused on emerging concerns over artificial intelligence after lawmakers referred to reports that Chinese technology giant Alibaba had targeted US AI company Anthropic through what was described as a "distillation" attack designed to extract knowledge from advanced AI models.
Explaining the technique, Shedd said it involved simplifying data from expensive AI models so they could be reproduced at much lower cost.
"They're able to bypass the investment that these large AI companies in the United States have put into it," he said, arguing that the approach allowed Chinese firms to "leapfrog" years of costly research and development.
Shedd urged stronger protection of what he described as the "crown jewels" of American technology and called for greater cooperation between government and industry to safeguard intellectual property.
Asked what Congress could do immediately to raise the cost of Chinese influence operations, he pointed to concerns surrounding TikTok and argued that enforcing existing legislation affecting the platform would send an important signal to Beijing while limiting access to user data.
The hearing highlighted growing concern in Washington that technological competition with China has become central to the broader strategic rivalry between the world's two largest economies. Artificial intelligence, semiconductor technology, quantum computing and biotechnology are increasingly viewed as critical areas with both commercial and military applications.
— IANS
Reader Comments
This is exactly why India needs to develop its own AI and semiconductor capabilities, or we'll be caught in the crossfire between US and China. Atal Innovation Mission and ISRO are doing good work, but we need to accelerate R&D investment. Better to have our own tech than depend on either superpower. 🚀
As someone who works in tech, I can tell you that the "distillation" attack they mentioned is actually quite sophisticated. But let's be honest – if the US didn't want its tech stolen, maybe they shouldn't have built so much of their AI supply chain through Taiwan and China in the first place. It's like leaving your car unlocked and then blaming the thief for being too clever.
Hmm, I find it ironic that the US is lecturing about IP theft when they themselves have a long history of industrial espionage. Remember the Echelon network? Or how they spied on European companies? India should stay neutral in this tech war and focus on building our own capabilities. We have the talent – our IIT graduates are running these companies anyway! 😄
From an Indian perspective, this is fascinating. We're seeing the US and China fighting for tech supremacy, and India is trying to balance relations with both. But honestly, if China is indeed stealing AI secrets, that's a genuine concern for everyone. We've seen Chinese apps like TikTok collect massive amounts of user data – India was right to ban them. 🛑
The real issue here is that the US is using this narrative to justify more sanctions against China, which will ultimately hurt developing countries like India. We
We welcome thoughtful discussions from our readers. Please keep comments respectful and on-topic.