Neil Chilson testifies that the US must back open-source AI to counter China's proliferating open-weight models

@bgurley Isn't this going to be a lot like unix ? Where everyone needed support ? So the companies like Red Hat made the money ?

Which made it somewhat niche ?

This is absolutely correct. The only way to fight "open" is with "open." Glad to hear a voice in Washington that understands the real stakes.

"At this very moment China is giving its AI technology away.

It's releasing open-weight AI models that are cheap, capable, and they're fast becoming the world's default."

We can overcome this. @neil_chilson testified before @HouseCommerce @EnergyCommerce today to explain how.

@mcuban @bgurley 2/2 in standardization for an LLM. The value is in the intelligence & any competitive models need massive fleets. People overhype China's open source models. We have open source hardware efficient models. The LLM scaling laws don't allow them to be competitive with massive LLMs.

@neil_chilson @HouseCommerce @EnergyCommerce Full testimony https://abundance.institute/our-work/neil-chilson-house-testimony-american-global-competitiveness-at-250-legislative-proposals-to-secure-u-s-technology-leadership/

@bgurley Always appreciate your free-market instincts, but this is a little bit off for me. China is not giving anything away for free. The models are free. The real estate isn't.

@mcuban @bgurley 1/2 Not really. Linux's main value is in being standard. Interoperability of an operating system is pretty key. And Open Source makes this a lot easier. Once you have that you can support other people's services that run on top of it.

There isn't anywhere near as much value in

@bgurley they have figured that the race will be won away from the models. @grok where is this?

@bgurley Thank you so much! @neil_chilson has been doing a lot to focus on this, working with all kinds of stakeholders. We also have more work on this coming out soon. DMing you too

@bgurley If your apartment building is in the way of the datacenter- well guess what. They are abusing our zoning laws

@abundanceinst @neil_chilson @HouseCommerce @EnergyCommerce Why does it matter whether Chinese or U.S. open models are better, they're open regardless 😭

@bgurley Would really appreciate a summary of what that means in this specific context, seriously. Thanks!

Most of the big Chinese OS models are being developed by Chinese megacorps like Alibaba and Tencent. The other AI startups in China like Z ai have raised billions literally from Alibaba Group and Tencent. They may be doing this at the behest of the Chinese government, but either way, if we want America to compete with China on OS, we need companies like Amazon, Apple, Walmart, SpaceX, etc. to care about OS.

The base models are commoditizing fast via open releases. The real race is now in the full stack: abundant compute + energy, proprietary data, rapid product integration, and turning intelligence into scientific and real-world breakthroughs. Open accelerates the base for everyone. Execution on top wins.

@mcuban @bgurley Linux not Unix

(Unix is closed source)

@bgurley @typewriters ⬇️

@bgurley the real scandal is it took china doing it first for anyone to care

@bgurley Didn't you find it interesting that it was Susie Wiles who first posted on X about Fable being released, and Lutnick reposted that in his statement?

Is the WH sending a message to Commerce?

@bgurley You called it last year!

@bgurley Wow, thanks Bill, I’m a huge fan, I still think of your “2,851 miles” presentation at the @allinsummit.