China eyes curbs on foreign access to homegrown AI models

Both the United States and China are moving toward erecting what Reuters calls a "silicon curtain" around their most advanced AI technologies, each seeking to protect frontier capabilities from the other. China's consideration of access restrictions represents a shift from its prior positioning as an open-source alternative to more restrictive and expensive US offerings. Beijing had previously marketed its open-source models as development tools accessible to lower-income countries — a pitch that positions China as the more permissive player in global AI. Restricting that access would undermine that narrative. In response, Silicon Valley is already taking counter-measures: Mark Zuckerberg has committed to aggressive pricing on Meta's premium AI, aiming to compete on affordability and capture the wider adoption that China's lower-cost models have enabled. The dynamic suggests an emerging dual-track AI landscape, with each superpower attempting to establish its own ecosystem while limiting the other's reach.