The U.S. State Department has issued an unusual notice to countries warning of 'technology theft' by Chinese AI companies such as DeepSeek.

The U.S. State Department has issued a warning that Chinese AI companies are illegally stealing American technology.

Exclusive: US State Dept orders global warning about alleged AI thefts by DeepSeek, other Chinese firms | Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/us-state-dept-orders-global-warning-about-alleged-china-ai-thefts-by-deepseek-2026-04-24/

According to diplomatic telegrams sent by the State Department to its allies, the State Department has expressed concern that Chinese AI companies are using advanced American AI models without authorization, extracting their knowledge, and reconstructing it into lower-cost models through a process called 'distillation.'

In particular, the telegrams appear to specifically name Chinese AI companies such as DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, and MiniMax as companies that are engaging in distillation. Concerns about such distillation have been raised previously by companies such as OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic, and private companies have already been working on countermeasures.

OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic are collaborating to counter 'hostile distillation attacks by Chinese AI companies' - GIGAZINE

The State Department also pointed out that 'AI created through illegal distillation may not adequately incorporate the safety measures and control mechanisms that should be included.' Compared to the original high-performance AI, the distilled models lack ideological neutrality and truth-seeking capabilities, and may give politically biased responses or induce hallucinations.

This issue is not merely a technical dispute between companies, but is also related to the US-China rivalry for AI hegemony and technological security. The fact that this issue has surfaced amid a scheduled meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping has led to concerns that the technology-related conflict between the two countries, which had shown signs of temporary easing, could intensify again.

DeepSeek has denied using 'synthetic data derived from OpenAI.'

Meanwhile, on X, an image was posted claiming that 'DeepSeek was using the name 'Claude'.'

deepseek-v4-flash is seriously amazing. They don't even try to hide the fact that it's made by distillation. pic.twitter.com/aSqaJ1azzz

— Female voice actress (@ssig33) April 26, 2026