A White House official accused Chinese AI firm Moonshot AI of distilling Anthropic’s Fable AI model to develop Kimi K3, which launched last week. In a post on X on Wednesday, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios alleged the firm developed an internal platform to distill US models at scale, using methods designed to evade detection. Kratsios stated that “large-scale, covert industrial distillation aimed at stealing proprietary U.S. technology and undermining American research is unacceptable.” Kimi K3 has emerged as one of China’s most capable AI models, intensifying Washington’s concerns. However, some AI researchers questioned the claims. Anthropic’s Fable 5 was re-released on July 1 after being taken offline due to US export controls, while Kimi K3 launched on July 16. Researcher Elie Bakouch noted, “There are only 15 days between fable 5 ban removal and kimi K3 release,” adding, “I don’t think claiming that K3’s performance comes from fable distillation makes sense technically.” Dean Ball, OpenAI’s head of strategic futures, said on Friday he didn’t believe the K3 model’s performance could be “explained away by distillation.” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that large-scale distillation attacks could result in sanctions, stating, “When PRC firms conduct covert, industrial-scale distillation attacks that cross the line into IP theft,