Why A.I. Distillation Has Become a Hot Topic in the Race with China

The American companies building artificial intelligence systems are loudly complaining that their Chinese competitors are unfairly copying their technology, and they are pleading with officials to do something about it. On June 10, Anthropic sent a letter to Senators Tim Scott and Elizabeth Warren, accusing the Chinese tech giant Alibaba of surreptitiously copying its A.I. technologies using a technique called distillation. Like other Chinese companies, Alibaba tapped into Anthropic’s technologies through tens of thousands of unauthorized accounts, according to the letter, which was viewed by The New York Times. Then…

The Real A.I. Race Isn’t America vs. China

A globally recognizable tech executive, high-spirited from preparing for a public offering, offers imprudent remarks criticizing the government. The state strikes back harder than anyone expects. Overnight, the bargain between a skyrocketing sector of the economy and the government is shattered. If you think this story could be about Anthropic, you’re only half right. In 2020, the Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma found himself in the doghouse after he publicly rebuked Chinese regulators. Citing regulatory concerns, the authorities canceled the public offering of Ant Group, another company Mr. Ma helped found,…

Chinese A.I. Models Gain Ground on Anthropic and OpenAI

Two weeks ago, the artificial intelligence company Anthropic shut down its two most powerful A.I. systems after an unexpected demand from the U.S. government to cut access to it. Days later, a Chinese start-up, Z.ai, released an A.I. model that is nearly as powerful as Anthropic’s models, Fable and Mythos. But Z.ai’s new technology costs much less to use, and no one in the United States was putting restrictions on it. It quickly landed on a closely watched leaderboard of the world’s 10 most popular models. Z.ai is on the…

The Battle With Anthropic Is the Start of a New Kind of Conflict

The Trump administration has spent the past week trying to end one war while pushing deeper into another. The first war, the Iran war, feels like the coda to an era; it seems unlikely that the United States will undertake another war for regime change in the Middle East for the foreseeable future. Whereas the second war, the battle over Anthropic’s cutting-edge artificial intelligence models, is the beginning of a new kind of conflict, with private powers and national governments struggling to determine who actually rules an A.I.-dominated world. The…

This Is What Should Unite the Right and the Left on A.I.

We come from different parties and have guided artificial intelligence policy under very different presidents. But we agree: A.I. has become so powerful that, along with its tremendous promise, the technology poses immediate risks to national security. The United States is competing with authoritarian powers for control of A.I.’s future. Yet the country lacks a strong plan to protect the nation from A.I.’s profound dangers. There are clear steps the government can take that both parties can agree on. But Washington lacks urgency. Unless we change course, A.I. systems will…