China’s AI models have Trump’s AI world at war with itself
The emergence of free, high-quality AI models from China, such as Kimi, is creating internal friction among President Trump's AI advisors. These models threaten the market dominance of US-based companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, raising concerns about economic impact and national competitiveness.
Why it matters
The rise of competitive, free foreign AI models challenges the economic model of US tech giants and complicates national AI policy and trade strategy.
Kimi and other free models from China have again been seen as a wake-up call. But for what?
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Over the weekend, several current and former advisors to President Donald Trump on AI publicly lobbed insults at the country’s leading AI companies. David Sacks, the president’s AI and crypto “czar” until March, branded Anthropic’s models as “lobotomized” and “woke.” Emil Michael, a top Pentagon official, called OpenAI’s new head of strategic futures a “supreme village idiot.”
It began because no one can agree on what to do about Kimi, a free, open source model that Chinese AI company Moonshot launched last week. It appears to rival the intelligence of models from OpenAI and Anthropic, which are very much not free.
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