The release of the Chinese open-weight AI model Kimi K3 has compressed a year’s worth of unresolved AI policy debate into a single news cycle. China’s open-source AI models are marching steadily into global markets, and now account for the majority of global AI workloads. One group, alarmed by the legitimate security risks that accompany Chinese AI diffusion, would prefer to see Chinese AI models restricted or banned from American infrastructure outright. They point to the theft of American intellectual property as one of several reasons to clamp down on Chinese AI. Sign Up for Our NewsletterDistillation as Technique, Extraction as FraudThe policy conversation around AI distillation has diverged sharply from the technical reality of today’s AI industry.