Trump Administration Vows Crackdown on Chinese Companies 'Exploiting' AI Models Made in US
The Trump administration vowed to crack down on Chinese firms extracting capabilities from U.S. AI models, as a bipartisan House bill advanced to sanction such attacks.
WASHINGTON, April 24, 2026 (AP) — The Trump administration is vowing to crack down on foreign tech companies' exploitation of U.S. artificial intelligence models, singling out China at a time that country is narrowing the gap with the U.S. in the AI race.
In a Thursday memo, Michael Kratsios, the president's chief science and technology adviser, accused foreign entities “principally based in China” of engaging in deliberate, industrial-scale campaigns to “distill,” or extract capabilities from, leading AI systems made in the U.S. and “exploiting American expertise and innovation.”
The administration, Kratsios wrote, will work with American AI companies to identify such activities, build defenses and find ways to punish offenders.
