AI news, 17 July: Xi outlines China's vision for open-source AI leadership

Xi pitches China as champion of open-source AI at World AI Conference. Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday addressed the opening of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, casting Beijing as the leader of a new global AI order built around open-source technology. According to Reuters, he urged countries to seize the historic opportunity of open AI models, pledged support for developing nations to build capabilities, and warned against unequal access creating new divides. He also made clearer remarks on AI safety, calling for systems to stay under human control and for early-warning mechanisms against loss-of-control risks. The speech positions China's approach—emphasizing sharing and Global South partnerships—against U.S.-led efforts, coinciding with the launch of a China-backed World AI Cooperation Organisation that has signed up 29 countries.

Moonshot releases Kimi K3, world's largest open-weight model. Beijing-based startup Moonshot AI unveiled Kimi K3, a 2.8-trillion-parameter multimodal model claimed as the largest open-weight system to date, with a 1-million-token context window. Reuters reported that the company says it approaches or competitively matches top U.S. systems such as Anthropic's Fable 5 on key tasks while outperforming others including some GPT-5.6 variants, particularly in coding and long-horizon work; independent rankings place it near the frontier, second overall on one index. Open weights are planned soon. The low-cost, open release highlights how rapidly some Chinese models are closing the performance gap with proprietary Western leaders, according to analysts cited by Reuters, even as scale may limit local running for most users.

Apple Intelligence clears regulatory hurdle for China launch. Apple secured approval from China's Cyberspace Administration for its Apple Intelligence generative AI features on iPhones, according to Bloomberg and Reuters reports from Wednesday. The service will rely on local partners including Alibaba's Qwen models and Baidu, as foreign models face registration barriers. No firm launch date was announced, but the registration removes a multi-year obstacle that had left hundreds of millions of Chinese users without the features available elsewhere. It illustrates how market access can force global tech companies to adapt to China's AI stack rules.

Databricks hits $188 billion valuation in new funding. Data and AI platform company Databricks is raising funds at a $188 billion valuation, with Coatue leading a roughly $3 billion investment, the Wall Street Journal and Reuters reported. The round focuses on expanding the firm's AI strategy, including tools for data handling and generative applications. The figure marks a sharp rise and underscores continued strong private-market interest in AI infrastructure plays even as public AI-related stocks faced scrutiny.

OpenAI ships Codex Micro keypad; Hyundai workers strike over robots. OpenAI, collaborating with Work Louder, launched the $230 Codex Micro—a compact physical keypad with backlit keys, dial, and joystick designed for controlling its Codex coding agents. Engadget and other outlets describe it as OpenAI's first consumer hardware accessory signalling AI coding workflows maturing into dedicated tools. Separately, Hyundai auto workers in South Korea held a partial strike raising wages, AI use, and humanoid robot deployment on factory floors as grievances—the first major car-industry stoppage explicitly naming humanoid robots, according to the Wall Street Journal. The action signals growing real-world labour pushback as physical AI enters manufacturing.