Nvidia's Huang responds to AI model distillation controversy, calls IT a competitive practice

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang defended AI model distillation as a competitive business practice, countering claims that it constitutes theft. During an interview with CNBC's Squawk Box, Huang stated that distillation—using outputs from other models to train new ones—is simply 'competition.' He emphasized that companies should be free to test and analyze products, even going so far as to mention that some firms dissect his company's products to understand their workings. Huang acknowledged that he would prefer no one to study his products, but argued that competition ultimately improves technology. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security accused Chinese AI firms of conducting 'industrial-scale knowledge distillation,' while Anthropic alleged that Alibaba and DeepSeek engaged in 'illegal distillation.'