The White House Is Trying to Figure Out What to Do About Chinese AI

白宫正试图决定如何应对中国人工智能的发展

The Trump administration is split over how to respond to the rapid rise of China’s leading AI models, according to multiple people familiar with deliberations. 据多位知情人士透露，特朗普政府内部对于如何应对中国领先人工智能模型的迅速崛起存在分歧。

The debate is broadly divided between parts of the White House, which has pushed for stricter controls on Chinese AI that may soon rival the most powerful US models, and the Commerce Department, which has viewed those restrictions as unworkable. 这场辩论大致分为两派：白宫部分官员推动对可能很快匹敌美国最强模型的中国人工智能实施更严格的管控，而商务部则认为这些限制措施不可行。

The conundrum has become the latest flash point for the administration over AI, after China’s Moonshot AI lab last week released its Kimi K3 model that rivals the top US models from Anthropic and OpenAI. 在中国的月之暗面（Moonshot AI）实验室上周发布了可与 Anthropic 和 OpenAI 的顶级模型相媲美的 Kimi K3 模型后，这一难题已成为本届政府在人工智能问题上的最新爆发点。

In recent days, senior White House officials have discussed possible measures to stop China’s AI labs from developing their models by training them on US models, a practice known as distillation, the people say. 知情人士称，近几天来，白宫高级官员讨论了可能采取的措施，以阻止中国人工智能实验室通过利用美国模型来训练自己的模型（这种做法被称为“蒸馏”）。

The White House is expected to take some sort of presidential action after Anthropic last month alleged the Chinese tech company Alibaba had carried out the “largest known distillation attack” against it to date. This action is not currently expected to take the form of an executive order, according to one of the people. 在 Anthropic 上个月指控中国科技公司阿里巴巴对其进行了迄今为止“已知最大规模的蒸馏攻击”后，预计白宫将采取某种总统行动。据其中一位知情人士透露，目前预计该行动不会以行政命令的形式出现。

A White House spokesperson did not comment on the reporting in this story. 白宫发言人未对本文的报道置评。

The White House has been taking distillation attacks especially seriously. It announced on Wednesday that Moonshot had developed Kimi K3 by distilling Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5 model, and Treasury secretary Scott Bessent told Fox Business that covert distillation could lead to sanctions, describing it as “IP theft.” 白宫一直非常重视蒸馏攻击。白宫周三宣布，月之暗面是通过蒸馏 Anthropic 的 Claude Fable 5 模型开发出 Kimi K3 的。财政部长斯科特·贝森特（Scott Bessent）在接受福克斯商业频道采访时表示，秘密蒸馏可能导致制裁，并将其描述为“知识产权盗窃”。

While proposals have been making the rounds inside the White House, no formal request for input has been transmitted yet to the Commerce Department, which has its own ideas, according to two people familiar with deliberations. 据两位知情人士透露，尽管白宫内部一直在流传各种提案，但尚未向商务部提交正式的意见征询请求，而商务部对此有自己的想法。

The Commerce Department has increasingly emerged as an influential part of the intra-administration split over AI, in part because it oversees export controls through the Bureau of Industry and Security. 商务部已日益成为政府内部人工智能分歧中具有影响力的一方，部分原因是它通过工业与安全局（BIS）负责监管出口管制。

Lutnick has contemplated ways to create incentives for top US labs to create their own open weight models to counterbalance China, and has spoken with leaders at a number of AI labs in recent weeks, the people add. 知情人士补充说，卢特尼克（Lutnick）一直在考虑如何激励美国顶级实验室创建自己的开放权重模型以抗衡中国，并在最近几周与多家人工智能实验室的领导人进行了交谈。

Lutnick appears to be straddling a middle ground of regulation—he imposed export controls on Anthropic to bring them to heel—but has been more freewheeling than Cairncross, one of the people said. 其中一位知情人士表示，卢特尼克似乎在监管方面采取了折中立场——他曾对 Anthropic 实施出口管制以使其服从——但他比凯恩克罗斯（Cairncross）更为灵活。

Earlier this month, the biggest AI issue for the administration was Anthropic’s Claude Mythos and Fable 5 models, because of their ability to find vulnerabilities in government systems and critical infrastructure. 本月早些时候，本届政府面临的最大人工智能问题是 Anthropic 的 Claude Mythos 和 Fable 5 模型，因为它们具备发现政府系统和关键基础设施漏洞的能力。

But policy headaches with AI have only escalated with the rise of so-called open weight models from China—models that have few to no safeguards to prevent hacking government systems and can be downloaded and used by anyone. 然而，随着中国所谓的“开放权重模型”的兴起，人工智能带来的政策头痛问题进一步升级——这些模型几乎没有或根本没有防止黑客攻击政府系统的安全保障，且任何人都可以下载和使用。