Bessent says U.S. could sanction China over AI model 'theft'
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the United States will examine whether Chinese AI models have been derived from American models and indicated sanctions could be considered for such intellectual property theft. He highlighted evidence of U.S. model watermarks in Chinese open‑weight models, including Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3, and noted ongoing discussions on AI between the U.S. and China. The remarks come amid broader disputes over AI training data and prior legal actions involving OpenAI and Anthropic.
- ▪Bessent announced that the Treasury will investigate potential distillation of U.S. AI models by Chinese firms and may impose sanctions for IP theft.
- ▪Moonshot AI released the open‑weight model Kimi K3, which reportedly outperforms some U.S. offerings on industry benchmarks.
- ▪Anthropic accused Alibaba of conducting the largest known distillation attack against its models, and both Anthropic and OpenAI have faced separate copyright lawsuits.
- ▪U.S. and China are scheduled to hold AI talks in September, with Bessent expected to represent the United States.
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| Original publisher | CNBC |
| Canonical URL | https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/21/bessent-china-ai-sanctions.html |
| Publication time | Tue, 21 Jul 2026 16:43:17 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-07-21T17:16:05.497Z |
| Last seen | 2026-07-21T17:16:05.497Z |
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Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday said the Trump administration will look into whether Chinese artificial intelligence models have been distilled from American models, stating that the government does not support "IP theft."Chinese open-weight models are gaining steam against leading offerings from American companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, sparking concerns from tech executives and government officials about the durability of the U.S. lead in the AI race. Moonshot AI, a Chinese startup, released a model called Kimi K3 earlier this month that outperforms those companies across some industry benchmarks.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at CNBC.
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