No, China isn’t killing its open AI (yet)
Beijing isn’t shutting off the outflow now, but is making clear that it can.
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
A DeepSeek AI sign is seen at a building where the Chinese start-up's office is located in Beijing, China, February 19, 2025. REUTERS/Florence Lo/File Photo
PHOTO: REUTERS
Catherine Thorbecke
China spent the better part of two years getting the world hooked on its cheap, open artificial intelligence models. Now, a surprise proposal for new export controls is stirring anxiety that Beijing may pull the plug on these tools that so many have come to depend on.
The stakes could be enormous for the Chinese AI industry, and even more devastating for the global start-ups and research institutions that have turned to its offerings as an alternative to Silicon Valley. China’s open-weight models make the inner workings of the technology public, allowing developers to download and customise them.