Why blocking China’s DeepSeek from using AI made in U.S. may be difficult

Top White House advisers this week expressed alarm that China’s DeepSeek may have benefited from a method that allegedly piggybacks off the advances of U.S. rivals called “distillation.”

The technique, which involves one AI system learning from another AI system, may be difficult to stop, according to executive and investor sources in Silicon Valley.

DeepSeek this month rocked the technology sector with a new AI model that appeared to rival the capabilities of U.S. giants like OpenAI, but at a much lower cost. And the China-based company gave away the code for free.