US data brokers are selling half a billion dollars in RL training environments to Chinese AI labs

According to a ChinaTalk investigation, at least nine US data brokers are selling approximately half a billion dollars' worth of AI training data and reinforcement learning environments to Chinese AI labs. These environments help Chinese labs cut compute costs and skip costly in-house development. Because these data sales remain largely unregulated, the authors argue for applying export controls to sensitive dual-use domains like coding and biology. Open article →