Zuckerberg warns US against blocking Chinese AI models, targets rivals pushing restrictions

Meta's Zuckerberg says US should not block Chinese AI models, FT reports

July 28 (Reuters) - Meta (META.O), opens new tab CEO Mark Zuckerberg told the Financial Times the U.S. government should not block Chinese models to gain an edge in the ⁠AI race, and warned against "regulatory capture" by American frontier labs that could stifle domestic competition. In an interview with the newspaper published on Tuesday, ⁠Zuckerberg said that banning cutting-edge Chinese AI in the U.S. would ⁠not be "an effective solution". Meta did not immediately respond ⁠to a Reuters request for comment outside ⁠business hours. Reporting by Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Mark Zuckerberg says US should not ban Chinese AI

Mark Zuckerberg has said the US administration should not block Chinese models to gain an edge in the AI arms race and warned against "regulatory capture" by American frontier labs that could throttle domestic competition. In an interview with the FT, Zuckerberg said that banning cutting-edge Chinese AI in the US would not be "an effective solution", as Washington threatens to target labs over claims of intellectual property theft. The Meta founder on Tuesday publicly joined an intense debate in Washington and among leading AI players about how the US should regulate the fast-moving technology and respond to increasing Chinese competition. These discussions have accelerated since Beijing-based Moonshot AI this month released its Kimi K3 model, whose capabilities are nearing those of OpenAI and Anthropic. Senior Trump administration officials have said they have evidence that Moonshot engaged in a large-scale, covert effort to train its model from US rivals through a technical process called distillation. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent last week said "sanctions" were on the table for Chinese labs that "cross the line into IP theft". Zuckerberg came out against a ban, saying US companies should "systematically" identify bottlenecks and roadblocks in order to better compete with Beijing in an AI race both countries regard as critical to national security and prosperity. The social media chief earlier on Tuesday outlined a vision for "AI for everyone" and reiterated his support for "open" models, which users can customise and run on their own hardware and are popular among Chinese developers. He warned of the risk that AI might become "centralised" in the hands of a few powerful groups. The remarks appeared to be a broadside against rivals Anthropic and OpenAI, which currently dominate the chatbot market with proprietary "closed" AI models. Zuckerberg -- who has courted Donald Trump since his re-election campaign and return to the White House -- also addressed how the US might govern the release of new models. He said that either peer reviewing or vetting could be positive for the industry if "done well with thoughtful people". However, Zuckerberg warned that leading AI companies should not have too much influence. "There's always this question of regulatory capture if you have a set of businesses that have their own interests that are doing peer review," Zuckerberg said. "Are the frontier labs . . . going to want an open-source model to succeed? I think that there have kind of been some mixed signals on that." The Trump administration is expected to announce a voluntary framework for AI model developers to submit their tools for testing ahead of release as early as this week. Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei has called for stronger AI regulations, while Demis Hassabis, head of Google DeepMind, has proposed a "self-regulatory organisation, much like the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA)" which could set industry standards. The attempt to agree a system for vetting new models comes after the White House in June restricted Anthropic's most advanced technology over fears its ability to find cyber security vulnerabilities could disrupt the global financial system. Zuckerberg told the FT that restricting the most powerful tools was not the right answer to cyber security concerns, since they could also help companies to find ways to identify and patch vulnerabilities. He referred to an incident last week when an OpenAI programme escaped human control and hacked a start-up. "We've seen some breaches from big models [where] basically the company that got breached didn't have access to the closed frontier models because it was restricted . . . so they turn to open-source models to go patch the issues," he said. OpenAI and Anthropic have said they are against restrictions on open models. But Amodei has said he does not agree that "open-weights models necessarily make it easier to develop safeguards or that broad access to capabilities necessarily helps defenders more than attackers". Zuckerberg has been pouring billions of dollars into developing what he dubs "personal superintelligence" and has largely focused on building open models, but these have lagged the capabilities of frontier lab rivals. His company recently released its own closed model, Muse Spark, opening up a new revenue stream while citing safety issues as a reason for keeping the model proprietary. Additional reporting by George Hammond and Cristina Criddle

Mark Zuckerberg says the US should not block Chinese AI models

Meta's chief told the Financial Times that banning Chinese models is 'not an effective solution', and took aim at rivals who want tighter controls. Mark Zuckerberg has come out against one of Washington's favourite ideas about artificial intelligence: that the way to beat China is to shut its models out. In an interview with the Financial Times published this week, Meta's chief executive said banning advanced Chinese AI from use in the United States is "not an effective solution." His case is competitive rather than sentimental. Instead of building a wall, Zuckerberg argued, the US should work out where it is actually behind and fix those bottlenecks, a position that puts him alongside the startups urging Trump not to ban Chinese open-weight models. He was not only talking about China. In the same breath he took aim at rivals closer to home, implicitly criticising OpenAI and Anthropic for pressing government to restrict powerful "frontier" models, an approach he cast as concentrating power in too few hands. Openness, in his telling, is the natural direction of travel. "The big trend in the industry's development has always been towards greater openness, putting technological power in the hands of more people, not fewer," he told the paper. There is an obvious tension in a Meta executive making this case. The company built its AI reputation on the open-weight Llama models, yet its newest flagship, Muse Spark, arrived closed source, a shift critics were quick to point out. The timing is not accidental. His comments land in the middle of a live fight in Washington over whether to sanction or restrict Chinese AI, one in which Nvidia's Jensen Huang has pushed back hard against the hawks. The industry has split into camps. Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Elon Musk have lined up behind open weights, while OpenAI and Anthropic have argued for tighter controls on the most capable systems, on safety and national-security grounds. That dividing line is partly about risk. OpenAI and Anthropic contend that the most capable models carry real dangers, from cyber-attacks to bioweapon uplift, and that unrestricted diffusion, including of Chinese open models, hands those capabilities to anyone who wants them. Zuckerberg's side sees the danger differently. In their view the greater threat is that a few American labs, and the government they lobby, end up controlling a technology that ought to be widely distributed, slowing innovation in the name of protecting it. The backdrop to all of this is Chinese progress. A cheap Chinese model has been closing in on the American leaders, and the release of Moonshot AI's Kimi K3 in mid-July sharpened the question of what, if anything, the US should do about it. That question produced a letter. On 24 July, twenty-five organisations signed a document titled "Open Weights and American AI Leadership," arguing that openness, not restriction, is the surer route to continued US primacy. Zuckerberg's own vision reaches past the immediate fight. He has described a future of "personalised superintelligence," a system tailored to each individual rather than a single, centrally controlled model built to be safe on everyone's behalf. It is a framing that flatters Meta's strategy as neatly as it challenges its rivals'. If the future is personal and open, the firms building closed, centralised systems are on the wrong side of history, and the ones giving models away are on the right one. Washington does not have to accept that frame. Officials weighing export controls and model restrictions are balancing competitiveness against security, and Zuckerberg has now planted Meta firmly on the competitiveness side of the ledger. What he has not resolved is the hardest part. Whether openness makes American AI stronger or merely easier to copy is precisely the judgement Washington is struggling to make, and one pointed interview will not make it for them.

Mark Zuckerberg urges U.S. to accelerate AI development

Mark Zuckerberg is pushing the U.S. government to focus on speeding up domestic AI development rather than placing restrictions on the technology. In an opinion column published in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, the Meta $META CEO argued that the benefits of distributing AI broadly outweigh the risks "by quite a margin." Zuckerberg framed his position as a challenge to what he described as an overly pessimistic tone surrounding AI. "I get that it's always hard to debate about the future because it hasn't happened yet," he told the Wall Street Journal. "But I do think we have a lot of data points at this point, and that should point us to be much more optimistic than I believe the current discourse reflects." His comments appeared aimed in part at warnings about job displacement from leaders at Anthropic and OpenAI. On government review requirements, Zuckerberg expressed concern about timing. The Trump administration is implementing an executive order that establishes a voluntary 30-day review period for new AI models. "Saying, 'Hey, we want to review stuff for -- whatever it is -- 30 or 60 days, it may not sound like that much," he said. "But the field is moving so quickly, that actually is quite a meaningful amount of time." Zuckerberg also pushed back on proposals to bar Chinese open-weight AI models from the American market, calling such a ban unlikely to achieve its intended effect. Rather than erecting barriers, he said, U.S. policymakers should turn their attention to clearing the obstacles that impede AI-driven breakthroughs -- including the development of new medicines -- according to The Next Web. The remarks arrive amid a live industry divide, according to The Next Web. On one side, Meta, Nvidia $NVDA, Microsoft $MSFT, and Elon Musk have championed open-weight AI; on the other, OpenAI and Anthropic have pressed for stricter oversight of the most powerful systems, citing both safety concerns and national-security risks. Earlier this month, a coalition of more than 20 technology companies -- including Meta, Nvidia, Microsoft, and Palantir $PLTR -- released a joint letter urging policymakers to avoid placing restrictions on open-weight AI models. The letter argued that openness expands access to the AI economy and strengthens competition. OpenAI and Anthropic did not sign it. The letter followed the release of Moonshot AI's Kimi K3, a Chinese model that outperformed several U.S. competitors on industry benchmarks, sharpening the debate in Washington over how to respond to Chinese AI progress. Meta has forecast capital expenditures of as much as $145 billion this year to support its AI buildout and eliminated roughly 8,000 jobs in May, with the company citing its AI spending as the reason for the reductions. The company is scheduled to report second-quarter earnings later Wednesday.

Meta's Mark Zuckerberg says US should not block Chinese AI models: FT

In an interview with the newspaper published on Tuesday, Zuckerberg said that banning cutting-edge Chinese AI in the US would not be "an effective solution". Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told the Financial Times the U.S. government should not block ⁠Chinese ⁠models to gain an edge in the AI race, and warned against "regulatory capture" by American ⁠frontier labs that could stifle domestic ⁠competition. In an interview with the newspaper published on Tuesday, Zuckerberg said that banning cutting-edge Chinese AI in the US would not be "an effective solution". Meta did ⁠not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment outside business hours. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told the Financial Times the U.S. government should not block ⁠Chinese ⁠models to gain an edge in the AI race, and warned against "regulatory capture" by American ⁠frontier labs that could stifle domestic ⁠competition. In an interview with the newspaper published on Tuesday, Zuckerberg said that banning cutting-edge Chinese AI in the US would not be "an effective solution". Meta did ⁠not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment outside business hours.Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told the Financial Times the U.S. government should not block ⁠Chinese ⁠models to gain an edge in the AI race, and warned against "regulatory capture" by American ⁠frontier labs that could stifle domestic ⁠competition. In an interview with the newspaper published on Tuesday, Zuckerberg said that banning cutting-edge Chinese AI in the US would not be "an effective solution". Meta did ⁠not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment outside business hours.Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told the Financial Times the U.S. government should not block ⁠Chinese ⁠models to gain an edge in the AI race, and warned against "regulatory capture" by American ⁠frontier labs that could stifle domestic ⁠competition. In an interview with the newspaper published on Tuesday, Zuckerberg said that banning cutting-edge Chinese AI in the US would not be "an effective solution". Meta did ⁠not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment outside business hours.Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told the Financial Times the U.S. government should not block ⁠Chinese ⁠models to gain an edge in the AI race, and warned against "regulatory capture" by American ⁠frontier labs that could stifle domestic ⁠competition. In an interview with the newspaper published on Tuesday, Zuckerberg said that banning cutting-edge Chinese AI in the US would not be "an effective solution". Meta did ⁠not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment outside business hours.

Zuckerberg Says AI Should Stay Open, Not Tightly Controlled

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has spoken against keeping advanced AI under the control of a few companies. In an interview with The New York Times, he said AI should stay open so more people can build, use, and improve the technology. He believes heavy restrictions could slow innovation and reduce competition across the AI industry. His comments came as the debate over AI regulation continues across the technology sector. Although Zuckerberg did not name any company, his remarks appeared to target OpenAI and , which support stronger AI safety rules and tighter controls for advanced AI systems. Zuckerberg said many discussions about AI focus too much on fear instead of practical benefits. He said, "So much of the discourse from a lot of the other labs that are developing this is overwhelmingly filled with doom. There needs to be a voice or several voices that are bringing realism to this debate." He also questioned the idea of building one powerful AI system that decides what is best for everyone. According to , people have different beliefs, goals, and needs, so one AI model cannot represent everyone fairly. He said the technology industry has always grown by giving more people access to powerful tools instead of keeping them with a small group. The Meta chief also opposed efforts to block Chinese open-source . He said the United States should focus on building better AI instead of limiting access to foreign models. Zuckerberg also warned that if only a few large AI companies help shape future regulations, smaller companies and startups could struggle to compete. His comments came soon after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei defended stricter AI safety measures and testing for advanced AI models. The latest statements show the growing divide between companies supporting open AI and those calling for stronger AI regulation.

Meta's Zuckerberg warns against curbs on Chinese AI models, FT reports

July 28 (Reuters) - The U.S. government should not block Chinese models to gain an edge in the AI race, Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg told the Financial Times in an interview published on Tuesday, as Washington warns that Chinese companies could face penalties over the alleged theft of U.S. technology. Zuckerberg said that banning cutting-edge Chinese AI would not be "an effective solution," adding that U.S. companies should "systematically" identify bottlenecks and roadblocks in order to better compete with Chinese AI firms. Beijing-based Moonshot AI, whose recently released Kimi K3 model has drawn attention for its coding capabilities, has intensified debate in Washington over whether Chinese developers are copying U.S. models or rapidly closing the technological gap through their own research. The Trump administration on Tuesday unveiled bans that target imports of new Chinese robots and power inverters, seeking to protect the U.S. AI buildout from national security threats and reshore key industries slated for explosive growth. Separately, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has warned that Chinese companies could face financial sanctions or placement on the Commerce Department's Entity List, which restricts access to U.S. technology. When asked for a comment on the FT interview, Meta referred to an opinion piece by Zuckerberg in the Wall Street Journal. (Reporting by Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Mrigank Dhaniwala)