Huang Renxun Smiles: U.S. Does Not Currently Plan to Ban Chinese Open Source Model

According to Dynamic Watch Beating monitoring, the White House informed companies such as OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic during a closed-door meeting on August 4 that open weights models would not be included in a new AI security review framework. Chinese models such as Kimi K3 and DeepSeek, therefore, do not need to undergo US government testing before release. At least for now, the US will not ban them under this framework.

After the popularity of Kimi K3, there was intense domestic debate in the US about whether to restrict Chinese open weights models. Some officials had considered options such as trade blacklisting, security warnings, and even issuing executive orders specifically targeting open models. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei also argued that both open and closed models should undergo mandatory security reviews.

Subsequently, Nvidia, together with Microsoft, Meta, OpenAI, Google, and other companies, issued an open letter urging the government not to unilaterally restrict open models. The open letter believed that open weights could reduce costs, enhance competition, and allow companies to deploy models on their own devices and servers.

Now the outcome is largely clear: at least in this round of security review gamesmanship, the open source faction has prevailed. However, this does not mean that Chinese models have received a permanent exemption. The US may still take separate actions against specific companies regarding chip supply, procurement, trade, or intellectual property rights.