China weighs open-weight AI’s security risks against national tech innovation strategy: researchers

As cutting-edge models like Zhipu AI’s GLM-5.2 rapidly close the performance gap with frontier models, policy analysts warn a regulatory shift may be imminent Traditionally, open-weight models – which allow anyone to download code for free and run it on local hardware – have lagged months behind proprietary frontier models. But recent releases from Chinese labs have significantly narrowed that gap. But as these AI models advance rapidly, analysts warned that a regulatory response could be on the horizon. “As open-weight models approach the kind of cyber and biosecurity risks of Mythos and other leading-edge models, China may make the same calculation as the US and find them to be too dangerous to be released, especially in open form,” said Mark Witzke, a non-resident scholar at the University of California San Diego who researches US-China tech policy.

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