The US is not the only country that uses AI. Pinterest attracts hundreds of millions users every month. However, some may not be aware that the platform heavily relies on Chinese AI models for its recommendation engine. Bill Ready, Pinterest CEO, says that AI is what has transformed the platform into an intelligent shopping assistant.
US firms have adopted Chinese AI models more and more since the DeepSeek R-1 was launched in China by China in January 2025. Matt Madrigal, Pinterest’s CTO, highlighted the fact that firms can train AI systems with open-source models such as DeepSeek more cost-effectively and accurately. The models are up to 90% more cost-effective and 30% more accurate than proprietary AI alternatives from US AI laboratories such as OpenAI.
Other major companies are also using Chinese AI technology. Airbnb uses Alibaba Qwen for its AI-powered customer service. It cites its affordability, speed and efficiency. Hugging Face shows similar trends. Chinese AI models are often amongst the top-rated and most popular by developers. Qwen has recently surpassed Meta’s Llama to become the largest language model.
Chinese AI’s rise in open-source technologies signals a change in the global AI leadership. Stanford University found in a report that Chinese AI has caught up with or even exceeded Western AI models when it comes to performance.
According to experts, China’s open source strategy and government support for the AI industry allows companies more freedom of experimentation and innovation.
US AI companies like OpenAI, on the other hand, have often restricted open access to their proprietary models in revenue. Sam Altman is the CEO of OpenAI. He emphasized that OpenAI invests heavily in infrastructure, ongoing model development and on-going research. However, this investment comes at a cost to accessibility. The former Meta executive, Sir Nick Clegg, noted that while US firms aim to achieve “superintelligence,” China democratizes AI technology.
Global adoption of Chinese AI is changing the face of industry. Now that companies have affordable, fast and accurate AI available, they are challenging US tech giants. China is leading AI innovation with open-source innovations.
