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

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

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