80,000 relay servers help users in China slip past U.S. AI region bans
Over 80,000 relay servers enable users in China to bypass region bans on U.S. AI models, facilitating potential model distillation and abuse.
Team Cymru researchers have uncovered a vast ecosystem of over 80,000 relay servers helping users in China bypass geographic restrictions on U.S. frontier AI models. These 'transfer stations' pool AI service accounts, hide user identities, and are used for activities like model distillation, which violates providers' terms of service. The operation uses open-source tools like 'sub2api' and 'Claude Relay Service', and the findings corroborate a joint advisory from CISA, NSA, and FBI warning about large-scale Chinese AI distillation campaigns.
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