China is making a broad push to shape the future of artificial intelligence by giving its technology away and teaching the world how to use it.
According to the Financial Times, Beijing is mounting its most ambitious effort yet to build an alternative global order in AI. The strategy has two main parts: making open AI models widely available, and training people in developing countries to use them. The FT reports that Chinese President Xi Jinping has placed this ambition at the center of the plan.
"Open" models are systems that are released for anyone to download, run and adapt, rather than being locked behind a company's paid service. That openness lowers the cost and technical barrier for governments, businesses and developers who might otherwise depend on a handful of Western providers.
The approach appears to be gaining traction beyond the developing world. As WRAL frames it, Chinese AI models are "cheaper, open and intelligent" and are gaining ground — including making inroads in the United States, one of the home markets of the leading American AI firms.
Taken together, the two reports describe a deliberate soft-power play: instead of competing only on raw capability, China is competing on access, price and reach. By seeding its models around the world and training the people who use them, Beijing could turn technical standards into lasting influence.
Why it matters: whoever's AI models become the default tools for the next wave of countries and developers may set the rules, norms and dependencies of a technology that will shape economies for decades.