America needs to stop getting shocked by Chinese AI
People visit the booth of Kimi, an LLM developed by the Chinese startup Moonshot, during the World AI Conference in Shanghai, China, Monday, July 20, 2026. | Image: LONG WEI/ Feature China/Future Publishing via Getty Images Last week, two Chinese AI companies unveiled models they say can credibly compete with the best systems from OpenAI and Anthropic. The response was swift and predictable. Markets wobbled, commentators declared Silicon Valley shooketh, and policymakers reached
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Two Chinese AI companies recently unveiled models they claim can compete with the best systems from leading US companies. The announcements caused market reactions and prompted comparisons to past technological surprises, though observers note that warnings about Chinese AI advancement have been common for years. Chinese models now make up a significant portion of the world's most-used AI tools, feature narrowing performance gaps with US offerings, and are priced substantially lower than American alternatives. The companies plan to release their models as open-weight systems available for public download and modification, contrasting with the closed approach of most leading US AI labs, though the full economic and performance implications remain subject to debate.
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