China's open-source AI closes the gap

PLUS: Create polished presentations fast with Kimi K2 Slides

Good morning, AI enthusiasts. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said China was “nanoseconds” behind the U.S. in AI just days ago — and Moonshot AI’s new release suggests he wasn’t exaggerating.

With the open-source (!) Kimi K2 Thinking coming for models like GPT-5 and Claude Sonnet 4.5 at a fraction of the price, China’s next ‘DeepSeek’ moment may have just arrived.

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In today’s AI rundown:

  • Kimi K2 Thinking takes open-source to new level

  • OpenAI walks back federal backstop comments

  • Create polished presentations with Kimi K2 Slides

  • Microsoft sets up new Superintelligence Team

  • 4 new AI tools, community workflows, and more

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

MOONSHOT AI

Image source: Moonshot AI

The Rundown: Alibaba-backed Chinese startup Moonshot AI just released Kimi K2 Thinking, an open-source reasoning model that matches or exceeds models including GPT-5 and Claude 4.5 Sonnet across a series of benchmarks at much lower cost.

The details:

  • Kimi outperformed GPT-5 and Sonnet 4.5 on several agentic benchmarks, also achieving a new top score of 44.9% on Humanity’s Last Exam.

  • The model also showed large improvements over its predecessor from just four months ago on coding, though still slightly trailing behind the top models.

  • K2 Thinking can also autonomously chain together 200-300 tool calls to accomplish tasks, while also excelling in creative writing.

  • The model reportedly cost under $5M to train, with its pricing coming in significantly below the current frontier models.

Why it matters: Nvidia’s Jensen Huang said just days ago that China is ‘nanoseconds’ behind in AI. Whether he was referencing Moonshot or not, this certainly speaks to that sentiment. K2 Thinking is the closest both open-source and Chinese labs have been to the frontier, with pricing that makes it a very serious alternative to top closed options.

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OPENAI

Image source: WSJ Tech Live

The Rundown: OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar reversed course after her comments suggesting the company wanted federal guarantees for infrastructure spending were heavily criticized, with Sam Altman saying that OAI opposes bailouts for private AI firms.

The details:

  • Friar initially told the WSJ that OAI sought a federal "backstop" to help finance AI investments, later saying she "muddied the point" with poor word choice.

  • White House AI czar David Sacks also rejected the idea of a federal bailout, saying other major frontier AI companies could replace any failed competitor.

  • Altman posted a statement rejecting government guarantees for private AI buildouts, saying "we should fail" if OpenAI "screws up."

  • Altman also addressed criticism of OAI becoming “too big to fail” and its massive spending, detailing revenue projections and future compute trends.

Why it matters: The AI leader’s spending was already scrutinized, and Friar’s backstop comments just poured gasoline on the fire. While it didn’t sound like they were an intended position, OAI’s circular dealmaking, national infrastructure efforts, and escalating financial commitments are certainly creating more questions than answers.

AI TRAINING

The Rundown: In this tutorial, you will learn how to use Kimi Slides to generate complete, professional presentations from a single prompt, handling layout, structure, and design automatically using a 1T parameter AI model.

Step-by-step:

  1. Go to Kimi, log in, and select Kimi Slides from the dashboard (free credits available for testing)

  2. Enter your presentation prompt (e.g., "Create a business plan presentation for a small coffee shop") and choose between Preset Mode (structured) or Adaptive Mode (creative/visual)

  3. Select a template from the minimalist to colorful design options, then click "Generate Slides" (takes 5-10 minutes for 14-18 slides)

  4. Review completed presentation, make any manual edits needed, then download as PPTX with fonts embedded to maintain formatting

Pro Tip: Experiment with different prompts and presentation styles to discover what fits your brand best.

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MICROSOFT

Image source: Microsoft AI

The Rundown: Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman announced the MAI Superintelligence Team, a research division dedicated to building advanced systems that solve specific problems in areas like medicine and energy over open-ended AGI.

The details:

  • Suleyman emphasized building “Humanist Superintelligence”, prioritizing AI that “always works for, in service of, people and humanity more generally.”

  • The team will focus on narrow, high-impact societal challenges, highlighting AI learning companions, medical superintelligence, and clean energy advances.

  • Suleyman’s Inflection co-founder Karen Simonyan is serving as chief scientist alongside poached researchers from DeepMind, OAI, and Anthropic.

  • The announcement comes in the wake of Microsoft’s new arrangement with OAI, allowing both to pursue superintelligence independently of each other.

Why it matters: We’ve seen all the major AI labs forge their own unique vibe over the last few years, and it feels like Suleyman has finally crafted one for Microsoft’s AGI efforts — forging a ‘humanist’ identity and unique direction that felt missing for much of the tech giant’s initial OAI arrangement.

QUICK HITS

The State of Code Roundtable NYC, Nov 13 – explore the AI productivity paradox and learn how to boost code quality in the age of AI. Register for free.*

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in an interview with the Financial Times that China is “nanoseconds behind America in AI” and that they are “going to win the AI race”.

Google’s 4x faster Ironwood TPU AI chips are set to be available in the “coming weeks,” with Anthropic already committing to using 1M to train and run Claude.

Perplexity launched an upgrade to its Comet AI assistant, featuring enhanced web interaction capabilities, multi-tab functionality, and performance improvements.

SoftBank Group and OpenAI introduced a new joint venture called SB OAI Japan, which will launch “Crystal intelligence,” an enterprise AI solution for Japan, in 2026.

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COMMUNITY

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"I’ve created a strategic executive assistant that is trained on my business’s core values, mission statement, and leadership principles — which are nuggets of wisdom from over 30 business books, the Bible, and success metrics for my role, departments, and our business. I can run through conversations, situations, decisions, etc., and it’s shared among all of our 80+ leaders and used daily across the company."

How do you use AI? Tell us here.

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