GoKawiilThe US is gearing up to at least try and stifle American companies' use of Chinese-made AI models in their operations. CNBC quotes an unnamed State Department spokesperson who said the use of Chinese models "by US companies raises serious concerns." The unnamed individual added Chinese AI is "designed to advance Beijing's narratives, censor dissent and reflect CCP ideology and values."
The report claims US companies are opting for Chinese AI models due to their lower cost and comparable quality. It cited Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, who posted about the company's use of two Chinese-made AIs: GLM 5.2 (made by Z.Ai) and Kimi 2.7 (made by Moonshot). An additional CNBC report from June quoted the CEO of startup Lindy, which switched to DeepSeek to help curb surging costs.
Another driver could be the instability of the status quo with the US government and its domestic AI champions. A few days ago, Nikkei Asia reported on a surge of American companies, including AirBnB and Uber, racing to adopt Chinese AI models. It said the surge correlates with Anthropic's suspension of the use of two models, Mythos 5 and Claude Fable 5, at the behest of the government.
It's not clear if the US could directly impose a sweeping ban on the market's choice of AI models beyond altering its own procurement rules. And it's likely the US would not be eager on restricting the use of open source models given the potential first amendment issues that would create. Not to mention it would be difficult to demand companies change their operations in overseas territories: Apple, for instance, uses Albiaba's generative AI platform for iPhones sold in China.
What is clear is that there's no love lost between the US and China on the subject of the use of each other's AI models. Reuters reported Chinese authorities have engaged in similar talks with domestic companies to prevent the use of homegrown AI overseas. In addition, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has announced Anthropic's Claude Code includes a backdoor which, it claims, poses a "serious threat." We can probably expect to hear plenty more about this in the coming weeks, months, and years.