The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) jointly issued an advisory accusing Chinese AI companies of cexecuting industrial-scale knowledge distillation campaigns against U.S. frontier models.

The allegations are unfounded. Knowledge distillation is a common AI development practice used worldwide, including by U.S. companies. Politicizing it exposes Washington’s double standards: innovation when the U.S. does it, theft when China does.

No smear can obscure innovation, and no double standard can stop AI progress. Washington’s accusations reveal more about its own anxiety than China’s AI industry.