Kimi’s launch last week has exposed a sharp split inside Trump’s AI orbit, with current and former advisers publicly attacking OpenAI, Anthropic and each other over how Washington should respond.
The free, open-source Chinese model appears close to top US systems, undercutting paid offerings from OpenAI and Anthropic and creating an economic and political problem for an administration already wary of more bad market news.
David Sacks argued US companies want government protection from open-source rivals, while former adviser Dean Ball attacked the White House’s new security review as a de facto licensing regime for frontier AI.
Emil Michael, the Pentagon’s main AI liaison with Pete Hegseth, rejected Ball’s suggestion of quiet pressure on companies and said any response to Kimi should go through the democratic process.
The clash also revives questions about US chip policy and Chinese training methods: Trump loosened Nvidia sales to China, Washington has alleged chip smuggling, and OpenAI and Anthropic have pushed for action against model distillation.