The Journal. · Tuesday, July 28, 2026
Chinese AI companies are reportedly catching up to US capabilities through techniques like 'distillation,' which involves training on other companies' models, and by using remote access to train models on chips outside of China. This progress is occurring even as the US restricts China's access to advanced AI chips.
“China has been thought to be several months to a year behind. And one way they've been trying to catch up is this technique called distillation. Or you essentially train off another company's AI models.”
“One answer. Maybe a tech loophole called remote access. And that is when users can basically access data center space and chips in another country.”
“The stunning thing to a lot of people is that China is doing this even while the US has restrictions on what advanced chips that it can get.”