China's AI Cat and Mouse Game: Distillation and the Limits of Replication A recent Reuters report has highlighted Chinese military linked researchers using advanced American AI models for distillation.
This technique allows smaller systems to inherit selected capabilities from more powerful AI models, raising concerns about unauthorized extraction of capabilities.
Model distillation is not new, but its use in defense related applications is a significant development. Chinese researchers have been using OpenAI's GPT 3.