Beijing looks at curbing overseas access to its top AI models sources say

Chinese authorities have looked into restricting overseas access to the country's top AI models. That's what sources have told Reuters. They added authorities held meetings with top tech firms over the past month about the issue. The talks follow a number of steps by Beijing to keep homegrown AI within the country. It also shows China, like the US, now treats AI as a critical national asset that needs controls. The sources said tech giants like Alibaba, ByteDance and ZAI were at the talks. Chinese AI models have expanded globally since the launch of DeepSeek's R1 model last year. It's partly due to their low costs and growing capabilities. Any decision by Beijing to limit access to those products could ripple across AI markets as costs for many businesses would likely rise. Two of the sources said the meetings were led by China's Ministry of Commerce and participants talked about putting limits on the most advanced AI models. That included both closed source and more open versions. They added officials talked about making any leak or theft of exclusive AI technology an offence under China's national security law. A source further said officials raised the possibility of implementing new measures to restrict who can fund domestic AI startups. The sources said the scope of the potential restrictions is still being discussed and may only apply to future models. It wasn't immediately clear when or even if they would come into force. China's Commerce Ministry and the National Development and Reform Commission didn't respond to Reuters' requests for comment. Alibaba, ByteDance and ZAI also didn't respond to Reuters' queries. Three sources also told Reuters DeepSeek is developing its own AI chip. It's a move which could lower its reliance on Nvidia and Huawei chips. They said it would be designed for inference rather than for training new models. Inference is the stage of AI computing where a trained model generates responses for users. The company didn't respond to a request for comment.