India, July 13 -- US artificial intelligence (AI) companies Anthropic and OpenAI have warned that Chinese companies are copying their advanced AI technology without permission. The companies say this copying could reduce America's lead in AI and create serious national security risks. They claim Chinese firms are using a method called "distillation" to build powerful AI chatbots faster and at a much lower cost.

Distillation is a process where a powerful AI model is used to train a smaller AI model. AI experts say the method is legal when companies use it on their own AI systems, but it becomes illegal or unethical when a rival company copies another company's AI without permission, according to Theresa Payton, former White House Chief In...