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ZDNET's key takeaways
The conflict between open and closed large language models is on.
Open weights and open source are not the same, but open weights are the future.
On the proprietary side are Anthropic and OpenAI; on the other, most everyone else.
The open-weight Moonshot AI's Kimi K3 is faster than Anthropic Fable 5 in some ways, and is nearly as fast as Fable 5 and OpenAI's GPT-5.6 in others. That's fast. And that has some American AI companies and the Trump administration worried.
Michael Kratsios, Trump's director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, has claimed that "Moonshot AI distilled Anthropic's Fable for the development of its K3." In short, he's suggesting that China's Moonshot stole from Anthropic. That's not how everyone sees it. Many US AI companies see Moonshot's open-weight methods as perfectly legitimate.
Also: AI Model Release Tracker
You might think it would be simple -- good guys versus bad guys -- but it's not. Even Kratsios admitted, "Legitimate AI distillation used to create smaller, more efficient models plays a vital role in this open innovation ecosystem." But, he added, "large-scale, covert industrial distillation aimed at stealing proprietary US technology and undermining American research is unacceptable."
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