Scott Bessent Warns of Possible Sanctions on Chinese AI Over Alleged IP Theft: 'This Administration Supports Open-Source Models, But...'

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has indicated that the Trump administration is set to probe alleged intellectual property theft by Chinese artificial intelligence models. Bessent made it clear on Fox Business’ "Mornings with Maria" on Tuesday that the U.S. government supports open-source models but not “IP theft.” He cautioned that foreign models found guilty of stealing from American firms could be subjected to sanctions. "What I will tell you is this administration supports open-source models, but what we do not support is IP theft," said the Treasury Secretary. Bessent used the term “distillation” to describe this kind of theft, which refers to a method of AI training where a less competent model is developed using outputs from a more advanced model. He voiced concern over discovering “watermarks of our U.S. large language models on many of the Chines...