Chinese AI Models Gain Ground in US: Cheaper & Smarter

Chinese artificial intelligence models are gaining ground in the U.S. and around the world. These models are more affordable and increasingly efficient. For example, Raffi Krikorian, Mozilla's Chief Technology Officer, switched to Moonshot’s Kimi K3 for many daily tasks, finding it "snappier" than the more expensive Claude Fable chatbot. He previously used Z.ai's GLM-5.2 for routine tasks like managing his calendar. U.S. companies, including cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, are adopting Chinese AI models to help trim costs. This trend has frustrated some U.S. tech giants. What's interesting is that these Chinese models are nearly as intelligent as frontier models from OpenAI and Anthropic. Experts say this shows the China-U.S. race in AI has moved on significantly. The bottom line is that the growing availability of cheaper, capable AI could change how businesses and individuals approach technology use.