AI Model Theft — Extraction Attacks 2026 — Stealing Trained Models Through the API

Every query you send to a commercial AI API teaches an attacker about the model's decision boundaries. I've seen this explained in briefings for years — the math on why it's a serious threat is undeniable. Send enough of them — crafted specifically to probe those boundaries — and you can reconstruct a functional clone of the model without ever touching the weights. That's model extraction: intellectual property theft through the API the owner gave you access to. The model…

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