Reaching Mount Everest-rivaling heights of political hypocrisy, China has slammed the United States over Washington’s admission that it spies on Beijing’s artificial intelligence programs.

Beijing’s anger follows U.S. actions last week that drew attention to China’s AI-related threats. These included the AI company Anthropic’s announcement that Chinese spies had attempted to use its Claude AI system for varied malicious purposes. CIA Deputy Director Michael Ellis also publicly admitted that his agency spies on Chinese research in AI, semiconductors, and biotechnology. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency further warned that, “China-based artificial intelligence (AI) companies are conducting systematic extraction of proprietary functionalities and capabilities of U.S. AI companies’ models through industrial-scale knowledge distillation campaigns that form the core — not merely a supplement — of their AI development strategy.”