Jensen Huang just used his first ever X post to warn the AI industry not to make the mistake that software narrowly avoided in the 1980s

Key Points:

• A letter signed by about 25 organizations, including Microsoft, Meta, and IBM, advocates preserving open-weight AI models to support American leadership, arguing they enhance safety, innovation, and sovereignty.
• The letter compares the current debate over open AI models to the 1980s open-source software movement, emphasizing that open models should not face premature restrictions as they are foundational to technological progress.
• It claims open models expand economic access, promote competition by preventing monopolies, and improve security by allowing broader code auditing, while defending the research practice of distillation against accusations of theft.
• The letter emerges amid U.S. discussions on restricting Chinese open-weight models like Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3, with tensions heightened by accusations that China used distillation to replicate U.S. technology.
• Concurrently, Chinese President Xi Jinping promotes a global cooperation approach to AI openness at the World AI Conference, supported by the formation of the Shanghai-based World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization, signaling a potential split in global AI governance.