China's AI Models: Cheaper, Smarter, Gaining Global Ground

Chinese artificial intelligence models are gaining ground globally. They are more affordable and increasingly efficient. Raffi Krikorian, Mozilla's Chief Technology Officer, switched to Chinese AI startup Moonshot’s Kimi K3 for daily activities. He found it "snappier" than the more expensive Claude Fable chatbot. He also uses Z.ai's GLM-5.2 for routine tasks. Other US companies, like Coinbase, are adopting Chinese AI to cut costs. This trend is frustrating some US tech giants. American-led restrictions block China from advanced AI chips. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has warned of more sanctions to protect US intellectual property. The US administration accused Moonshot of using "covert" methods to build K3 from Anthropic's Fable. Chinese startups are also accused of "distillation" of models, a claim Beijing rejects. Experts say new models from Z.ai and Moonshot are nearly as intelligent as frontier models from OpenAI and Anthropic. Alibaba and DeepSeek also have new AI models. Curt Meinhold, a technology executive, prefers DeepSeek for business tasks, stating most users just need something "good enough." This means consumers and businesses now have more affordable and competitive AI options.