The Morning Risk Report: How Chinese AI Firms Tried to Clone U.S. AI Models

Good morning. Chinese artificial intelligence companies attempted to clone American AI models by funneling real Chinese user queries to them via a network of intermediate platforms, Anthropic said in a report published Thursday.

Companies including Moonshot AI and DeepSeek used these middlemen to relay millions of their own users’ queries, including ones containing sensitive data such as location information and passwords, to Anthropic’s Claude, the report alleges, offering a detailed new look at the cloning technique known as distillation that American officials liken to industrial-scale theft.

Buenos Aires is taking a harder line against London as offshore oil development raises the stakes in a decades-old sovereignty dispute.

Also, U.S. lawmakers from both parties say the continuing degradation of America’s lead cyber agency is becoming a national security issue.

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The growing number of Americans left financially devastated by scammers face a harsh reality: Even when the government is able to seize stolen crypto, with no clear standards around who gets what, the recovery process can turn into a bureaucratic mess.

Seizures represent only a small portion of the tens of billions siphoned from Americans each year—but they are growing. Since the scammers are abroad and not easy to arrest, law enforcement in recent years has focused on following the money. Agents have learned to painstakingly trace digital currencies, hop by hop, across blockchains—the decentralized ledgers stored on computers around the world that provide a public record of transactions between digital wallets. When money has moved beyond the reach of the U.S. legal system, agents in some cases have convinced foreign crypto companies to turn over allegedly stolen funds.

Chemours, DuPont de Nemours and Corteva have settled with North Carolina and 11 communities that were excluded from a previous settlement over drinking-water toxins.

The $455 million settlement resolves litigation brought by the state and local entities alleging Chemours’s Fayetteville Works facility leaked PFAS “forever chemicals” and other discharges. Payments will be made over a 15-year period.

The closing price of Brent Crude futures Thursday, the highest close since May 19. Increased fighting across the Persian Gulf region is raising supply worries.

Boston Scientific has restored its manufacturing, order fulfillment and shipping operations after a disruption by last month’s cyberattack.

The company said products are moving through its distribution network at or above normal levels as the Marlborough, Mass., company works to fulfill customer orders, reduce backlogs and accelerate the delivery of products.

Boston Scientific earlier this week said it likely won’t meet its financial guidance for the third quarter and full year due to the hack, which affected its ability to manufacture, and its ability to process and ship customer orders.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says his government needs tens of billions of additional dollars to keep fighting and pay bills through the end of the year.

The request couldn’t come at a worse time for European governments, the main donors to Kyiv’s defense against Russia. European officials privately warn they might not be able to foot the bill for everything Ukraine wants.

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