A Chinese spokesperson on Wednesday dismissed accusations against Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) firms of “copying” technologies from U.S. companies, saying the country’s AI development is driven by self-reliance on science and technology.
“China’s AI development is the result of high-level self-reliance and strength in science and technology, and has also benefited from China’s commitment to extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, as well as openness and cooperation,” said Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry.
“We believe all parties need to strengthen cooperation and make sure AI development is open and inclusive and promotes the well-being of humanity as a force for good and for all,” she said at a press briefing.
Mao expressed the hope that the U.S. side will earnestly act on the important common understandings reached between the two heads of state and stop making groundless accusations to smear China.
“China and the United States, both as major countries in AI, should strengthen cooperation,” she said.
The comment comes after U.S. officials accused six Chinese companies, including DeepSeek, Moonshot AI and Alibaba of tapping variants of American-made AI models to train their AI products more quickly. The companies did so “likely with Chinese government awareness,” according to the statement from U.S. officials, who added that the Chinese companies targeted AI models from Anthropic, OpenAI, Alphabet’s Google and SpaceX.
