Trump administration officials have struggled over the past few weeks with what to do about artificial intelligence.

在过去几周里，特朗普政府的官员们一直在为如何应对人工智能问题而苦恼。

In particular, a group that includes White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have debated whether or not to take a far more interventionist approach to “open source” A.I. models, which are freely available to download and modify, said more than a half-dozen current and former tech and government officials and other people familiar with the matter.

据多位现任及前任科技界与政府官员以及其他知情人士透露，一个核心小组讨论了是否要大幅增加对可自由下载和修改的“开源”AI模型的干预，小组成员包括白宫幕僚长苏西·威尔斯、财政部长斯科特·贝森特和商务部长霍华德·卢特尼克等人。

Senior officials have considered a range of actions, including using sanctions, a trade blacklist against Chinese companies that make these open-source A.I. models, or even banning U.S. cloud companies from doing business with them, said five of the people, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private matters. But after an outcry from Silicon Valley, they appear to have changed their minds and instead are focused on promoting American A.I. models to be more competitive, the people said.

五位因涉私下讨论而要求匿名的知情人士表示，高级官员们曾考虑过一系列行动，包括实施制裁、将开发这些开源AI模型的中国公司列入贸易黑名单，甚至禁止美国云服务公司与它们开展业务。但这些知情人士表示，在受到硅谷的强烈反对后，他们似乎改变了主意，转而专注于推动美国AI模型以提升竞争力。

On Tuesday, the Trump administration’s A.I. plans may become clearer. The White House has invited U.S. tech companies to discuss a framework that would allow the government to review new A.I. models for cybersecurity issues before they are released publicly, according to three people with knowledge of the plans.

据三位了解相关计划的人士透露，特朗普政府的AI计划可能会在周二变得更加清晰。白宫已邀请美国科技公司讨论一项框架，该框架将允许政府在新的AI模型向公众发布前，对其网络安全问题进行审查。

“This is all happening so fast,” said Senator Jon Husted, Republican of Ohio, last week after he met with the chief executives of Nvidia and OpenAI. “I don’t know that I have any definite conclusions about any of it.”

“这一切发生得太快了，”俄亥俄州共和党参议员乔恩·赫斯特德上周在会见了英伟达和OpenAI的首席执行官后表示。“我不确定自己对任何事情得出了确切的结论。”

The whiplash is a sign of the Trump administration’s conflicting impulses when it comes to A.I. and the difficulties of handling such a quickly developing and powerful technology. The White House has aggressively intervened in swathes of the economy over the last 18 months, from media to computer chip manufacturing to mining. But A.I. is changing rapidly and the government has scrambled to determine how to put its thumb on the scale.

这种态度上的剧烈摇摆体现了特朗普政府在面对AI时内部存在的矛盾冲动，也反映出掌控这样一项发展极为迅速且威力强大的技术所面临的困难。在过去18个月里，白宫对经济的多个领域进行了激进干预，涵盖了从媒体、计算机芯片制造到矿业的各个方面。然而AI正经历快速变革，政府一直在仓促应对，试图摸索该如何施加影响。

President Trump began his second term as an unabashed A.I. booster, peeling back regulations and forging close relationships with A.I. companies and start-ups. But that changed in June when Mr. Trump issued an executive order that would give the government oversight over new A.I. models. Since then, the technology has continued to evolve quickly.

特朗普总统在其第二个任期之初是一位毫不掩饰的AI推动者，不仅废除了多项监管规定，还与多家AI公司及初创企业建立了紧密的联系。但这一局面在6月发生了转变，当时特朗普颁布了一项行政命令，赋予政府对新AI模型的监督权。此后这项技术继续保持着快速的迭代进化。

The most recent debates were prompted by a surge in powerful new Chinese A.I. models, which are known as “open source,” where the public can see the underlying computer code, or “open weight,” where companies reveal the calculations used to generate answers to questions.

这一轮最新的争论是由中国推出的多款强大的新AI模型引发的。这些模型被称为“开源”（即公众可以看到底层代码）或“开放权重”（即公司会公开用于生成问题答案的计算参数）模型。

In Silicon Valley, the response to these Chinese A.I. models varied wildly. OpenAI and Anthropic, which generally do not share the underlying technology of their models, pushed the government to rein in their Chinese rivals, citing national security.

在硅谷，对这些中国AI模型的反应截然不同。通常不共享其模型底层技术的OpenAI和Anthropic以国家安全方面的考量为由施压政府遏制其中国竞争对手。

Other U.S. tech companies that produce open-source models, including Nvidia, pushed back. They argued that open-source models encourage innovation and could be used to defend computer systems from cyberattacks.

其他开发开源模型的美国科技公司（包括英伟达）则表达了反对意见。它们主张，开源模型能促进创新，并且有助于计算机系统抵御网络攻击。

Which side comes out on top has taken on new significance in the long-running fight between Washington and Beijing over which nation will control critical technologies and win the A.I. race. Raising the stakes, Xi Jinping, China’s leader, is set to visit Washington in September for meetings that are expected to include some discussion of A.I. Industry executives and analysts said they believed the administration was unlikely to take action before that visit.

在中美两国关于谁将控制关键技术并赢得AI竞赛的长期博弈中，最终谁能获胜已经被赋予新的重要意义。令局势愈发紧张的是，中国领导人习近平计划于9月访问华盛顿，预计届时的会晤将包含对AI的讨论。行业高管和分析师表示，他们认为政府不太可能在该访问之前采取实际行动。

黄仁勋上周与商务部长卢特尼克在椭圆形办公室。他已直接向政府官员阐述了开源人工智能产品的优点。

“The United States leads the world in A.I. innovation, and President Trump’s successful approach will keep it that way,” said Liz Huston, a White House spokeswoman. The Department of Commerce declined to comment.

“美国在AI创新方面领跑全球，特朗普总统成功的应对举措将保持这一态势，”白宫发言人莉兹·休斯顿表示。商务部拒绝置评。

The debate heated up last month, as executives at Anthropic and OpenAI continued regulatory discussions after the release of Moonshot AI’s Kimi, a bleeding-edge Chinese model that performed on par with top models from the two American companies in some areas, two of the people familiar with the companies’ positions said.

两位了解两家公司立场的知情人士透露，争论在上个月进一步升级，当时月之暗面公司推出了前沿模型Kimi，该模型在某些领域的表现与这两家美国顶尖公司的旗舰模型不相上下，随后Anthropic和OpenAI的高管继续与监管部门展开讨论。

OpenAI and Anthropic also expressed concerns about “distillation,” when a model is developed based on the responses of a different A.I. tool, essentially creating a copy, according to three people familiar with the matter.

据三位知情人士透露，OpenAI和Anthropic还对“蒸馏”现象表达了担忧，即通过另一个AI工具的输出来训练和开发新模型，这实质上等同于制造复制品。

OpenAI首席执行官萨姆·奥尔特曼上周在华盛顿讨论政府为制定人工智能测试管理框架所做的努力。

The administration echoed those concerns. Michael Kratsios, who leads the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, posted last month on X that the Chinese company that makes Kimi had distilled Anthropic’s powerful Fable model.

政府对这些担忧做出了回应。领导白宫科技政策办公室的迈克尔·克拉齐奥斯上个月在X上发帖称，开发Kimi的中国公司“蒸馏”了Anthropic强大的Fable模型。

He warned that “stealing proprietary U.S. technology and undermining American research is unacceptable.”

他警告称：“窃取美国专有技术并破坏美国科研成果是不可接受的。”

The same day, Mr. Bessent posted that Chinese companies could face sanctions or other federal restrictions over stealing intellectual property.

同一天，贝森特发帖称，中国公司可能会因窃取知识产权而面临制裁或其他来自联邦政府的限制。

The administration has also considered restricting the models that can be used by the federal government, or regulating information and communication technology through the Department of Commerce, a potential way to prevent U.S. firms from doing business with Chinese A.I. companies, four people familiar with the discussions said.

据四位了解讨论情况的人士透露，政府还考虑限制联邦政府可使用的模型，或者通过商务部对信息和通信技术实施监管，这是一种阻止美国公司与中国AI企业开展业务的潜在手段。

“We believe both open-weight and closed models have an important role to play in democratizing access to AI,” an OpenAI spokesperson said. “Advances in Chinese open-weight models are not an argument against openness. They reinforce the need for a coherent national framework that enables the U.S. to evaluate new models quickly, manage risks, and get the most powerful AI tools into the hands of cyber defenders.”

OpenAI的一位发言人表示：“我们相信开放权重模型和封闭模型在推动AI普及方面都发挥着重要作用。中国开放权重模型的进步并不是反对开放的理由。它们反而强化了建立一套连贯的国家框架的必要性，使美国能够快速评估新模型、管理风险，并将最强大的AI工具交到网络安全防御者的手中。”

Anthropic declined to comment.

Anthropic拒绝置评。

(The New York Times has sued OpenAI and Microsoft, claiming copyright infringement of news content related to A.I. systems. The companies have denied those claims.)

（《纽约时报》已向OpenAI和微软提起诉讼，指控其侵犯了与AI系统相关的新闻报道的版权。两家公司均否认了这些指控。）

At Nvidia, Microsoft, Google and Meta, executives grew increasingly concerned that Anthropic and OpenAI would win over the White House with their arguments for tighter restrictions, according to two of the people. That would potentially cement the A.I. start-ups’ positions as market leaders,

据两位知情人士透露，英伟达、微软、谷歌和Meta的高管们越来越担心Anthropic和OpenAI会凭其论点说服白宫实施更严格的限制。那将有可能巩固这两家AI初创企业作为市场主导者的地位。

Other A.I. labs were at risk of falling permanently behind, the people added. And because several of the companies make their own open-source models or supply hardware to businesses that use open-source technology, they worried the restrictions could harm them.

知情人士补充道，其他AI实验室则面临着永远落后的风险。而且由于其中几家公司本身也开发开源模型，或向使用开源技术的企业供应硬件，它们担心这些限制措施可能会损害自身利益。

Over private texts, phone calls and video conferences, executives quietly built an argument that open-source models were good for the world and for American innovation, according to three of the people familiar with the talks.

据三位了解谈判情况的人士透露，通过私下的短信、电话和视频会议，高管们悄悄构建起了一套论证，即开源模型对世界以及美国的创新都是有益的。

Jensen Huang, the chief executive of Nvidia, became the face of that pushback in the nation’s capital. In his first-ever post on X on July 24, he defended open-source models, saying they accelerated innovation and strengthened security. Nvidia set up an alliance of companies pledging to work on open-source tools for A.I. safety, which quickly ballooned from a few members to more than 230.

英伟达首席执行官黄仁勋成为了华盛顿推行这一反驳主张的代表人物。在于7月24日发布的首条X帖子中，他为开源模型做出了辩护，称其加速了创新并强化了安全性。英伟达建立了一个公司联盟，承诺致力于开发用于AI安全的开源工具，该联盟迅速从最初的少数几个成员暴涨至超过230个。

Christopher Padilla, a former Commerce Department official and tech executive, said the clash was primarily an industry debate about money and market dominance — what he called a “cage match over the future of the A.I. industry.”

前商务部官员、现科技界高管克里斯托弗·帕迪拉表示，这场冲突本质上是一场关于资金和市场主导权的行业争论——他称之为“关于AI行业未来的一场铁笼缠斗”。

“It happens to have a national security dimension, but it’s mainly a fight about what the A.I. market should look like: a collection of walled gardens dominated by a few big players, or a more open free-for-all with many smaller ones,” he said.

“它恰好存在一个国家安全维度，但其核心是一场关于AI市场应该是什么样子的争论：是由少数巨头主导的一些封闭花园，还是由许多较小参与者共同构成的更为开放的自由竞争，”他说道。

A spokesman for Nvidia declined to comment.

英伟达的一位发言人拒绝置评。

Fueling the debate are recent revelations from OpenAI and Anthropic that their models had, unprompted, hacked other organizations. OpenAI said last month that two of its A.I. models had infiltrated Hugging Face, another tech company. Anthropic last week said that its own technology had hacked into three unnamed organizations, partly because of human error.

为这场争论推波助澜的还有OpenAI和Anthropic最近披露的细节：它们的模型在未得到指令的情况下自发黑入了其他机构。OpenAI上个月表示，其两个AI模型侵入了另一家科技公司Hugging Face。Anthropic上周则表示，其自身的技术黑入了三个未具名的机构，部分是因人为失误造成的。

Last week, OpenAI’s chief executive, Sam Altman, met with White House officials including Mr. Kratsios and Ms. Wiles to discuss the administration’s efforts to create a framework governing the testing of A.I. He also met with members of the Senate, though several lawmakers said the open-source debate had not come up.

上周，OpenAI首席执行官萨姆·奥尔特曼与包括克拉齐奥斯和威尔斯在内的白宫官员进行了会晤，讨论政府在制定管理AI测试框架方面所做的努力。他还与多位参议员进行了会面，不过几位议员表示并没有谈及开源问题的争论。

By the time Mr. Altman appeared in Washington, Mr. Huang was already bringing his case for open-source A.I. products directly to administration officials and to lawmakers in a series of Capitol Hill meetings.

在奥尔特曼现身华盛顿之际，黄仁勋已经在国会山举行的一系列会议中直接向政府官员和议员陈述支持开源AI产品的理由。

“He makes a compelling argument,” said Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, after meeting with Mr. Huang last week, adding that the rise of Chinese open-source A.I. models had complicated the debate. “I’m not sure this is a genie we can put back in the bottle in terms of open source, but I’m still thinking this through.”

“他的论点很有说服力，”维吉尼亚州民主党参议员马克·沃纳在上周会见黄仁勋后表示，并称中国开源AI模型的崛起使这场争论变得更加复杂。“我不确定就开源而言，我们是否还能把这只精灵放回瓶子里，但我仍在深入思考这个问题。”