{"text":[[{"start":7.45,"text":"Open-source software was the engine of the internet era. Today’s digital world was built on open-source tools such as Linux and Python. In the age of AI, widespread open-weight AI models — those that are publicly released allowing users to run and customise them — will also play a key role. China’s advances in open-weight models have prompted some Trump administration officials to call for them to be restricted. But such technologies are crucial to create a dynamic AI ecosystem."}],[{"start":37.9,"text":"The release of Kimi K3, a model from Chinese company Moonshot that has performed well on certain industry tests, shows how Chinese open-weight models are closing the gap with the leading US models, despite China’s restricted access to leading-edge chips. Experts suspect these models were trained using large-scale distillation, a process that uses the output of one model to build another. US officials are taking these concerns seriously: Treasury secretary Scott Bessent has said that sanctions are on the table."}],[{"start":68.8,"text":"Worries over Chinese models have contributed to the recent tech stock sell-off. Investors fret that the spread of such technology could be bad for large US AI labs that make money selling access to closed models. Cheap Chinese models put pressure on pricing and call into question the returns investors expect from US labs. US “hyperscalers” are spending hundreds of billions on computing power, underpinning the strong valuations of businesses such as chipmakers."}],[{"start":97.25,"text":"Policymakers, too, have identified risks. There are legitimate intellectual property concerns around distillation — as well as over safety. Open-weight models are harder to police, and safety testing is more difficult for models that can be downloaded and modified by users. Nefarious actors could use them to create chemical or biological weapons. AI labs and governments must together develop safety standards and testing capacity for new models."}],[{"start":123.2,"text":"But protectionism from the US would be misguided. An open letter shared on X by Nvidia founder Jensen Huang and signed by companies including Palantir, Meta, OpenAI and Google emphasised the many benefits of open-weight models. The letter highlights the necessity of a “strong, open ecosystem that diffuses into every sector . . . creating opportunities for innovation and prosperity across the country.” It warns that premature restrictions on these emerging open models could hurt domestic competition and innovation. Anthropic’s founder Dario Amodei released a separate post saying the company did not support a ban on open-weight models, but called for mandatory safety testing."}],[{"start":165.5,"text":"Necessary concerns over safety and intellectual property should not become a block on innovation. A generation of companies would benefit from access to cheaper AI tools — even if that puts pressure on the top US labs. Since open-weight models can provide many general-purpose uses more cheaply, competing US labs will need to speed up efforts to develop agentic tools that can complete specific, more complex tasks."}],[{"start":189.25,"text":"In a recent speech, President Xi Jinping highlighted China’s ambition to export AI tools and knowhow via its “digital silk road”, and its lower-cost models are more affordable for users in developing countries. The US should be wary of Chinese moves to dominate the AI future. But its best response would be to encourage more alternative open-weight models of its own, not restrict those from China. That might also help to encourage co-operation from Beijing on standards and testing."}],[{"start":221.3,"text":"Despite the challenge that open-weight models pose to US frontier labs, newer, cheaper models should help drive AI adoption across the economy. If that raises prosperity and growth, it is good for the US tech industry too."}],[{"start":242.65,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1785293860_5441.mp3"}