Tech Companies Urge Caution by US policymakers on Open Models

Nvidia CEO Jensen HuangChung Sung-Jin via Getty ImagesA group of influential tech companies has signed on to an open letter urging U.S policy makers to avoid “premature restrictions on open models that stifle competition or drive innovation overseas.”The letter, released on July 24, reflects growing concern in official circles that Chinese open-weight models, which are available for anyone to download, modify and run on their own infrastructure, are gaining significant traction at the expense of the proprietary closed models from the leading U.S. tech vendors.Indeed, the Chinese models’ success has sparked suggestions of foul play. The capabilities of Moonshot’s Kimi K3 model, for example, prompted Michael Kratsios, an adviser to the Trump administration, to accuse the Chinese company of a “large-scale effort” to steal proprietary US technology.Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent went further on the threat posed by China.“We support open source AI and the innovation it unlocks,” he posted on X. But open source is not open season on American IP. When PRC firms conduct covert, industrial-scale distillation attacks that cross the line into IP theft, sanctions and Entity List designations will be on the table.”Related:Microsoft-Mistral Partnership is About Sovereign AIThese sharp responses have sparked worry in the tech community. “AI will transform every industry, power every company, and be built by every country. Open models strengthen safety and cybersecurity, accelerate innovation and diffusion, and enable sovereignty. The world needs both frontier closed models and frontier open models,” Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, said, also in an X post.The open letter is backed by more than 75 companies, including Nvidia, Dell, Hugging Face, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, Mistral, OpenAI and SpaceX. It quickly gained momentum, with a host of other companies adding their backing, including OpenAI, Google, AMD, Cisco, GitHub and Cloudflare.Notable non-signers include Anthropic, Amazon and Apple.The letter acknowledges there are dangers to the proliferation of open models, however.“To be sure, open weights carry real and distinct risks. Once released, the weights are beyond the original developer’s control, and modified versions are difficult to trace or reverse, the letter states, “But the right response to this risk is not to prohibit open weights.”Alternatively, the signatories say policymakers should understand that open weights “strengthen competition and competition is what keeps the gains of AI broadly shared rather than concentrated in a few hands.”“Relying solely on closed models is not inherently safe: they can be breached, misused or fail in ways that outsiders cannot detect. And concentrating advanced AI capabilities behind a small number of closed models compounds that risk,” the letter continued.Related:New Gemini 3.5 Flash Models Are Faster and Cheaper but Not SmarterThe Trump administration has not formally responded to the letter.About the AuthorContributing WriterGraham Hope has worked in automotive journalism in the U.K. for 26 years, including spells as editor of leading consumer news website and weekly Auto Express and respected buying guide CarBuyer.