The Download: Chinese AI divides the White House, and a record copyright payout
The White House is divided over how to handle the rise of Chinese open-source AI models like Kimi, which compete with US-based firms. Meanwhile, Anthropic has settled a major copyright lawsuit for $1.5 billion, marking a significant legal milestone for the AI industry.
Why it matters
The intersection of AI development, national security, and intellectual property law is shaping the future of global technological competition.
Plus: Anthropic's record $1.5 billion copyright settlement has been approved.
This is today's edition of The Download , our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what's going on in the world of technology.
Last weekend, several current and former advisers to President Donald Trump on AI publicly lobbed insults at the country’s leading AI companies. David Sacks branded Anthropic’s models “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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