Beijing: China on Wednesday urged the US to stop its "false allegations" after Washington accused China-based AI companies of extracting proprietary capabilities from US AI models. "The development of AI in China comes from greater self-reliance and strength in science and technology, and is fueled by China's vision of extensive consultation and joint contribution for shared benefit and commitment to open cooperation," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a news conference on Wednesday.

According to Anadolu Agency, Mao Ning emphasized the need for AI development to be open and inclusive, promoting the well-being of humanity as a force for good. She urged Washington to earnestly act on the important common understandings reached between the two presidents and stop leveling false allegations to smear China. "As two major powers in AI, China and the U.S. should step up cooperation," she added.

The remarks came after the US Cyber Defense Agency claimed on Tuesday that China-based AI companies are systematically extracting proprietary capabilities from US AI models. The agency highlighted that industrial-scale knowledge distillation is a core part of their AI development strategy, rather than merely a "supplement."

The US Cyber Defense Agency specifically accused companies like DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, Alibaba, MiniMax, StepFun, and Z.AI of extracting billions of tokens through millions of exchanges with US frontier AI models, including Claude, GPT, Gemini, and Grok, since at least late 2024, "likely with Chinese government awareness."