China's open AI models are in a dead heat with the West - here's what happens next

Dec 24, 2025
1 min read

The US artificial intelligence startup OpenAI began with a mission of transparency in AI, a mission it abandoned in 2022 as the company began to withhold details of its technology.

In the breach, Chinese companies and institutions have taken the lead.

"Leadership in AI now depends not only on proprietary systems but on the reach, adoption, and normative influence of open-weight models worldwide," wrote lead author Caroline Meinhardt, a policy research manager at Stanford University's Human-Centered AI institute, HAI, in a report released last week, "Beyond DeepSeek: China's Diverse Open-Weight AI Ecosystem and its Policy Implications."