Trump AI action plan backs open source
The Trump administration's AI action plan explicitly highlighted the importance of open source AI in its opening section, signaling early policy support.
Snapshot · The a16z Show
Sriram Krishnan on Open Source AI's Biggest Week Yet
Explore episode
Jul 24, 2026
Where this was said
Should the U.S. Government Restrict Chinese Open-Source Models?
At 15:30 · chapter starts 13:40
Theo raises an Axios report that the Trump administration is considering restricting Chinese open-source AI models, citing either national security concerns or the fact that they have reached near-Claude-level capability in agentic coding. Krishnan has no inside information from his former colleagues, but he can offer context. [1] — Sriram Krishnan "The most capable open-weight models right now are Kimi K3, Deepseek, and Qwen — all Chinese. Sriram Krishnan says flatly: he would much rat…" 15:40 The Trump administration's AI action plan, which he helped craft, explicitly champions open source in its opening section — so any blanket crackdown on open-source AI would be in tension with the administration's own stated policy. But Krishnan is blunt on one point: the fact that the leading open-weight models — Kimi K3, Deepseek, Qwen — are Chinese rather than American is not a comfortable situation. He rattles off the American efforts underway: Gemma from Google, Nimotron from NVIDIA, Thinking Machines, new startups. He expects them to improve. But the current moment is one where Chinese models lead open source, and that has real implications for national security, economic competitiveness, and the deployment of AI by allied governments.
America Is Losing the Open-Source AI Race to China
The most capable open-weight models right now are Kimi K3, Deepseek, and Qwen — all Chinese. Sriram Krishnan says flatly: he would much rather the leading models be American. Gemma, Nimotron, and new startups are trying, but the U.S. is currently behind.
Linus's Law Applied to AI: Open Weight = Inherently Secure
Linus Torvalds said 'given enough eyes, all bugs are shallow.' Sriram Krishnan applies this to AI: open-weight models downloaded from Hugging Face can be inspected by the entire world, making them inherently more auditable than closed frontier models. Security through transparency, not obscurity.
Similar snapshots
8 states have filed social media lawsuits
A total of 8 states have filed lawsuits against social media platforms, including an ongoing case in Tennessee, using product liability and public nuisance theories to seek accountability.
France built 56 nuclear plants in the 1970s
France built 56 nuclear plants in the 1970s and now has the cheapest energy in Europe, making it independent of Russian or Middle Eastern energy geopolitics.
Estonia has one tax form
Estonia has a single tax form, a law preventing the government from asking citizens for the same information twice, and a flat rate of tax — enabling competitive taxation.
Lisbon legalised drugs and slashed crime
Portugal's Lisbon, once a city with a major heroin problem, legalised drugs and redirected enforcement spending into rehabilitation and housing, dramatically reducing crime.
Boland Amendment vote: 411-0
The first Boland Amendment banning CIA and Defense Department funds for the Contras passed the House unanimously — yet the Reagan administration ignored it.
Saudi Arabia donated $32M to Contras
Over just two years, Saudi Arabia alone donated $32 million to the Contra rebels, giving loosely affiliated factions millions they had no way to spend on arms.
National Endowment: 52% program rate
The National Endowment for the Preservation of Liberty raised $6.3 million for the Contras but only $3.3 million reached them — a shockingly low 52% program expense rate.
Secord & Hakim marked up arms 300%
Richard Secord and Albert Hakim marked up their arms shipments to the Contras by as much as 300%, making enormous personal profits from the covert operation.
Oliver North had zero covert experience
Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, tapped to run the entire covert Contra support operation, had no prior experience in covert operations whatsoever — he was learning as he went.
