Open weight models from Chinese AI labs can be run on your own hardware or via third-party providers like Microsoft, so your data never travels to China.
CJ uses a restaurant/food analogy to explain that while using Chinese AI websites sends data to China, open weight models — like published recipes — can be downloaded and run locally or via US providers like Microsoft Foundry, with no data going back to the model's creator. ✦ AI generated
CJ · Syntax · 2026-07-30 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 7:54
All of these Chinese AI labs also offer up what are known as open weight models, which is like publishing their recipes online. And when they do that, that actually means you can download these open weight models to run them on your own computer or your own hardware or your own servers in the cloud. [...] Some AI labs make it so that other companies and people can take that model and then run it on their own systems. And then they provide API access to end users and applications. And one of the biggest examples of this is Microsoft Foundry. They actually give you API access to many different open weight models when you sign up for their service. And so if you go to ai.azure.com, you actually can get access to GLM 5.2 or Kimmy K 2.5, which are all models that were created by Chinese labs. But when you're interacting with those models, none of your data is actually traveling to China. Your data is only traveling between you and Microsoft or whatever company is hosting these open weight models. And when you access models in this way, the creator of that model has no idea that you're even interacting with that model.
verbatim transcript · starts at 7:54
7:35recipes online, so people can make that food at home. And one of the best examples I could find of this is the Cheesecake Factory. When you go into their restaurant, they have a massive menu and lots of stuff to choose from, but if you go to their website, some of their most popular menu items are actually freely available as recipes for you to look at and make
7:54yourself at home. And so, while they're in full control of the experience when you go to the restaurant, if you make these recipes at home, you're in control. And this is much closer to what Chinese AI labs do, where they're actually in control if you go to their website, like quin.ai or z.ai or kimee.com. You can access their models in the same way you would get access to
8:14the closed US models through their website. And when you visit their website or use their app, your prompts and every bit of data that's used whenever you're interacting with that model is traveling to China. But, all of these Chinese AI labs also offer up what are known as open weight models, which is like publishing their recipes online. And when they do that, that actually means you can download these open weight
8:34models to run them on your own computer or your own hardware or your own servers in the cloud. Now, we will come back to that idea of open weight models in just a little bit, but let's talk about food some more because the other way that you get access to food is via food delivery. You can pull open your phone, open up one of these food delivery apps, choose
8:53from any number of restaurants, and then have that food delivered directly to your house. But at the end of the day, the restaurant is still in control of that food. It was cooked in their kitchen, and the only way to get it was via this third-party service. Now, in the world of AI models, this type of access is known as API access. And all of the AI labs mentioned
9:12allow us to interact with their models in that exact same way. And this allows us to interact with other apps and services that have AI model features inside of them, but those other apps and services aren't necessarily the creators of the model. You might, for instance, go to a website and there's a chat box on it that says, "Would you like some help?" And when you're chatting with that chatbot, it
9:34kind of feels like you're talking to a model from one of these AI labs because you typically are. But that website or app is actually communicating with that AI lab. And that's what's allowing you to get that experience inside of that website or app. And we see this common integration with code editors or image editors or email applications. Essentially, it's the app that you're used to with a little bit of AI
9:57sprinkled on top. And the way that that happens is via API access. Now, another way to get food is through meal kit delivery. >> [music] >> And if you haven't heard of these services, essentially you can subscribe and they'll send you a refrigerated box of ingredients along with recipes that were curated from various chefs or restaurants, but then you get to cook that meal in your own kitchen. And so in
- ·Open weight models are like publishing recipes online
- ·They can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
- ·Or hosted via US providers like Microsoft Foundry
- ·Microsoft Foundry hosts models like GLM 5.2 and Kimmy K 2.5
- ·Data travels only between you and the hosting provider
- ·The model creator has no idea you're using it