Ng Han Guan-Pool/Getty Images
- China's leader, Xi Jinping, promoted open-source AI in a speech on Thursday.
- "We should seize this rare, historic opportunity to encourage open-source," he said.
- While most leading US models are closed, Chinese models such as Kimi K3 and Z.ai's GLM 5.2 are open.
The world's AI superpowers differ on a key strategy: openness.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping shared his philosophy on AI at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on Friday. He called for both more regulation of the tech — as well as open-sourcing it.
In a list of four observations, Xi first called for a "principle of openness."
"We should seize this rare, historic opportunity to encourage open-source, openness, collaboration, and sharing," Xi said.
Many of the biggest Chinese models are open-source, including DeepSeek, the company that surprised Silicon Valley last year. More recent buzzy competitors — like Kimi K3 and Z.ai's GLM 5.2 — are also open source.
Meanwhile, American labs mostly operate private, closed-source models. Meta open-sourced its general Llama models, but not its proprietary Muse Spark model. Though "open" is in its name, OpenAI's models are, in fact, closed.
Anthropic's models are also closed-source. CEO Dario Amodei said in 2023 that open-source models were going down a "dangerous path," because the companies cannot moderate usage or revoke access.
Xi, however, had a different take. "China is ready to be more open, take more practical actions, and assume a more visionary perspective," he said in his speech.
His second observation called for global regulation of AI, ranging from "technological monitoring" to "early response systems." He also took a quick dig at the US for its AI protectionism.
"We should jointly oppose overstretching the national security concept in the feud of AI or placing one country's security over that of others," Xi said.
Indeed, US leaders have long been cautious of China's advancements. President Donald Trump delayed one of his executive orders because he believed the order could diminish US companies' lead over China in the AI race.
China hasn't always been so happy to share. The Chinese government, for example, ordered Meta to unwind its acquisition of Manus, a Chinese AI agent startup that had relocated to Singapore.
Xi also said we should use AI to "increase understanding, tolerance, exchanges, and sharing."
Earlier in his speech, Xi posed a series of big questions that needed answers. One question: How do we "realize AI for all when the divide keeps widening?"
He seemed to answer that in his fourth observation — that the world should "advocate solidarity and improve global governance."
"We must carry out extensive international cooperation and help Global South countries with capacity building to bridge the AI and digital divides," Xi said.
He vowed to provide 5,000 AI training and seminar opportunities to countries with less advanced AI technology.
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