Kevin Kelly: If Token Cost Becomes Critical in the Future, China's Open-Source Models Will Have a Significant Advantage

Odaily Planet Daily News: On July 18th, at the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference, renowned futurist and "Godfather of Silicon Valley" Kevin Kelly stated in an interview that if people one day start to care about token costs, the existence of open-source models would give China an advantage in AI.

Kevin Kelly mentioned that the cost of token consumption is becoming increasingly important, although currently, people do not seem to be concerned about it. "But I believe that when we are consuming such a massive number of tokens all the time, everyone will start to care (about the cost). If you can provide a cost that is only one-tenth of Anthropic's, then it will disrupt the landscape." However, Kevin Kelly also cautioned that the open-source model requires sufficient funds to sustain operations, as it is not as profitable as the closed-source model. "Building these large models requires substantial capital." (The Paper)