Who Is Afraid of Chinese Models?

Ben Thompson suggests legalizing AI model distillation to help American open models compete with Chinese ones. Alibaba released Qwen 3.8 Max with open weights, possibly influenced by Xi Jinping's speech on openness.

Alibaba/Qwen

WAIC 2026: main announcements and why China is turning artificial intelligence into national infrastructure

At the WAIC 2026 conference in Shanghai, Chinese companies unveiled new AI models and platforms, while authorities announced plans to transform AI into national infrastructure. Key announcements: the Kimi K3 model from Moonshot AI, a video development platform AGENT from Sohu, and initiatives to integrate AI into industry and education.

Moonshot AI Sohu