New bipartisan bill takes aim at Chinese AI companies accused of copying American tech

EXCLUSIVEArtificial intelligenceArtificial intelligenceNew bill takes aim at Chinese AI companies accused of copying American techThe bipartisan effort addresses claims from American tech companies and officials that Chinese companies are “distilling” frontier U.S. models.Listen to this article with a free profile00:0000:00Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., speaks at the Capitol on June 1.Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images fileShareAdd NBC News to GoogleJuly 23, 2026, 4:00 AM EDTBy David IngramA bipartisan group of lawmakers said they were introducing legislation Thursday aimed at protecting American artificial intelligence companies like OpenAI and Anthropic from Chinese competitors.Subscribe to read this story ad-freeGet unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.The bill, called the Collaboration on Adversarial Threats and Security Risks Act, treats Chinese alleged copycats as a security threat to the U.S. and would create an exemption to antitrust laws so AI companies and industry groups can coordinate on a response, according to a summary of the legislation from the lawmakers’ offices. Antitrust laws generally limit intra-industry coordination on many subjects, on the theory that coordination may raise prices for consumers.The legislation is being introduced by Sens. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Jim Banks, R-Ind., and Reps. Bob Latta, R-Ohio, and George Whitesides, D-Calif.Lawmakers said the bill would allow AI companies and industry groups to share information related to certain security risks as long as they do so in good faith for the exclusive purpose of preventing, investigating or mitigating AI security risks. They could also coordinate — for the exclusive purpose of reducing AI security risks — by delaying or limiting the deployment of high-risk AI models, with required written notice before they take such actions, according to the summary of the legislation.The lawmakers said their antitrust exemption would include strict guardrails to keep the AI se...