00:01Chinese authorities have looked into restricting overseas access to the country's top AI models.
00:06That's what sources have told Reuters.
00:09They added authorities held meetings with top tech firms over the past month about the issue.
00:14The talks follow a number of steps by Beijing to keep homegrown AI within the country.
00:19It also shows China, like the US, now treats AI as a critical national asset that needs controls.
00:25The sources said tech giants like Alibaba, ByteDance and ZAI were at the talks.
00:32Chinese AI models have expanded globally since the launch of DeepSeq's R1 model last year.
00:37It's partly due to their low costs and growing capabilities.
00:41Any decision by Beijing to limit access to those products could ripple across AI markets as costs for many businesses
00:47would likely rise.
00:49Two of the sources said the meetings were led by China's Ministry of Commerce
00:52and participants talked about putting limits on the most advanced AI models.
00:57That included both closed source and more open versions.
01:00They added officials talked about making any leak or theft of exclusive AI technology an offence under China's national security
01:07law.
01:08A source further said officials raised the possibility of implementing new measures to restrict who can fund domestic AI startups.
01:15The sources said the scope of the potential restrictions is still being discussed and may only apply to future models.
01:22It wasn't immediately clear when or even if they would come into force.
01:27China's Commerce Ministry and the National Development and Reform Commission didn't respond to Reuters' requests for comment.
01:33Alibaba, ByteDance and ZAI also didn't respond to Reuters' queries.
01:37Three sources also told Reuters DeepSeek is developing its own AI chip.
01:42It's a move which could lower its reliance on Nvidia and Huawei chips.
01:46They said it would be designed for inference rather than for training new models.
01:51Inference is the stage of AI computing where a trained model generates responses for users.
01:56The company didn't respond to a request for comment.
01:59...
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