Latest news with #K2
NBC News
14 hours ago
- Business
- NBC News
Another Chinese AI model is turning heads
BEIJING — The latest Chinese generative artificial intelligence model to take on OpenAI's ChatGPT is offering coding capabilities — at a lower price. Alibaba-backed startup Moonshot released on late Friday night its Kimi K2 model: a low-cost, open source large language model — the two factors that underpinned China-based DeepSeek's industry disruption in January. Open-source technology provides source code access for free, an approach that few U.S. tech giants have taken, other than Meta and Google to some extent. Coincidentally, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced early Saturday that there would be an indefinite delay of its first open-source model yet again due to safety concerns. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment on Kimi K2. One of Kimi K2′s strengths is in writing computer code for applications, an area in which businesses see potential to reduce or replace staff with generative AI. OpenAI's U.S. rival Anthropic focused on coding with its Claude Opus 4 model released in late May. In its release announcement on social media platforms X and GitHub, Moonshot claimed Kimi K2 surpassed Claude Opus 4 on two benchmarks, and had better overall performance than OpenAI's coding-focused GPT-4.1 model, based on several industry metrics. 'No doubt [Kimi K2 is] a globally competitive model, and it's open sourced,' Wei Sun, principal analyst in artificial intelligence at Counterpoint, said in an email Monday. Cheaper option 'On top of that, it has lower token costs, making it attractive for large-scale or budget-sensitive deployments,' she said. The new K2 model is available via Kimi's app and browser interface for free unlike ChatGPT or Claude, which charge monthly subscriptions for their latest AI models. Kimi is also only charging 15 cents for every 1 million input tokens, and $2.50 per 1 million output tokens, according to its website. Tokens are a way of measuring data for AI model processing. In contrast, Claude Opus 4 charges 100 times more for input — $15 per million tokens — and 30 times more for output — $75 per million tokens. Meanwhile, for every one million tokens, GPT-4.1 charges $2 for input and $8 for output. Moonshot AI said on GitHub that developers can use K2 however they wish, with the only requirement that they display 'Kimi K2' on the user interface if the commercial product or service has more than 100 million monthly active users, or makes the equivalent of $20 million in monthly revenue. Hot AI market Initial reviews of K2 on both English and Chinese social media have largely been positive, although there are some reports of hallucinations, a prevalent issue in generative AI, in which the models make up information. Still, K2 is 'the first model I feel comfortable using in production since Claude 3.5 Sonnet,' Pietro Schirano, founder of startup MagicPath that offers AI tools for design, said in a post on X. Moonshot has open sourced some of its prior AI models. The company's chatbot surged in popularity early last year as China's alternative to ChatGPT, which isn't officially available in the country. But similar chatbots from ByteDance and Tencent have since crowded the market, while tech giant Baidu has revamped its core search engine with AI tools. Kimi's latest AI release comes as investors eye Chinese alternatives to U.S. tech in the global AI competition. Still, despite the excitement about DeepSeek, the privately-held company has yet to announce a major upgrade to its R1 and V3 model. Meanwhile, Manus AI, a Chinese startup that emerged earlier this year as another DeepSeek-type upstart, has relocated its headquarters to Singapore. Over in the U.S., OpenAI also has yet to reveal GPT-5. Work on GPT-5 may be taking up engineering resources, preventing OpenAI from progressing on its open-source model, Counterpoint's Sun said, adding that it's challenging to release a powerful open-source model without undermining the competitive advantage of a proprietary model. Grok 4 competitor Kimi K2 is not the company's only recent release. Moonshot launched a Kimi research model last month and claimed it matched Google's Gemini Deep Research 's 26.9 score and beat OpenAI's version on a benchmark called 'Humanity's Last Exam.' The Kimi research model even got a mention last week during Elon Musk's xAI release of Grok 4 — which scored 25.4 on its own on the 'Humanity's Last Exam' benchmark, but attained a 44.4 score when allowed to use a variety of AI tools and web search. 'Kimi-Researcher represents a paradigm shift in agentic AI,' said Winston Ma, adjunct professor at NYU School of Law. He was referring to AI's capability of simultaneously making several decisions on its own to complete a complex task. 'Instead of merely generating fluent responses, it demonstrates autonomous reasoning at an expert level — the kind of complex cognitive work previously missing from LLMs,' Ma said. He is also author of 'The Digital War: How China's Tech Power Shapes the Future of AI, Blockchain and Cyberspace.'
See - Sada Elbalad
21 hours ago
- Sport
- See - Sada Elbalad
Qatari Princess named as Pakistan's tourism ambassador
Basant Ahmed Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has named Qatari royal and elite mountaineer Sheikha Asma Al Thani as Pakistan's Brand Ambassador for Mountains and Tourism, following her historic summit of Nanga Parbat, one of the world's most dangerous peaks. The announcement came shortly after Sheikha Asma became the first Qatari woman to scale the 8,126-metre peak known as 'Killer Mountain', located in Pakistan's Gilgit-Baltistan region, Gulf News reported. Her appointment as Pakistan's tourism ambassador is being seen as both a diplomatic gesture and a strategic move to promote Pakistan's vast mountain ranges as a global destination for high-altitude adventure. In a statement posted on social media platform X, Prime Minister Sharif praised Sheikha Asma's feat as a 'powerful message of courage and determination' and a symbol of the enduring ties between Pakistan and Qatar. He wrote: 'I am pleased to appoint Her Highness Sheikha Asma Al Thani as the Brand Ambassador for Pakistan's Mountains and Tourism. 'Her recent achievement of summiting Nanga Parbat is truly inspiring. It stands as a testament to resilience and showcases the immense potential of Pakistan's mountain tourism.' A deadly peak Known for its treacherous conditions and deadly climbing history, Nanga Parbat has long held the ominous nickname of 'Killer Mountain.' Last week, Czech mountaineer Klára Kolouchová, 46, tragically died during an expedition on the same peak. For Sheikha Asma, this summit marked her ninth successful ascent of the world's 14 'eight-thousanders' -- peaks over 8,000 meters -- as part of her quest to become one of the few climbers, and even fewer women, to conquer them all. Alhamdulillah, Nanga Parbat. My ninth 8000er and one of the toughest climbs I've faced,' she wrote on Instagram. 'This mountain tested me in ways I didn't expect… a constant reminder of how fragile life truly is.' She added: 'There was surrender, and there was strength I didn't know I still had. I climb not just to reach summits, but to return to what matters.' At the summit, Sheikha Asma raised the Qatari flag, a symbolic act that resonated far beyond mountaineering circles. Her success has been hailed as a milestone for women's empowerment in the Arab world and a bold statement on gender equality in extreme sports. With previous summits of Mount Everest, K2, and Makalu under her belt, Sheikha Asma continues to break barriers and inspire climbers globally, particularly women from traditionally underrepresented regions. read more Gold prices rise, 21 Karat at EGP 3685 NATO's Role in Israeli-Palestinian Conflict US Expresses 'Strong Opposition' to New Turkish Military Operation in Syria Shoukry Meets Director-General of FAO Lavrov: confrontation bet. nuclear powers must be avoided News Iran Summons French Ambassador over Foreign Minister Remarks News Aboul Gheit Condemns Israeli Escalation in West Bank News Greek PM: Athens Plays Key Role in Improving Energy Security in Region News One Person Injured in Explosion at Ukrainian Embassy in Madrid News Israeli-Linked Hadassah Clinic in Moscow Treats Wounded Iranian IRGC Fighters News China Launches Largest Ever Aircraft Carrier Sports Former Al Zamalek Player Ibrahim Shika Passes away after Long Battle with Cancer Videos & Features Tragedy Overshadows MC Alger Championship Celebration: One Fan Dead, 11 Injured After Stadium Fall Lifestyle Get to Know 2025 Eid Al Adha Prayer Times in Egypt Business Fear & Greed Index Plummets to Lowest Level Ever Recorded amid Global Trade War News "Tensions Escalate: Iran Probes Allegations of Indian Tech Collaboration with Israeli Intelligence" News Flights suspended at Port Sudan Airport after Drone Attacks Arts & Culture Hawass Foundation Launches 1st Course to Teach Ancient Egyptian Language Videos & Features Video: Trending Lifestyle TikToker Valeria Márquez Shot Dead during Live Stream
CNBC
a day ago
- Business
- CNBC
Alibaba-backed Moonshot releases new Kimi AI model that beats ChatGPT, Claude in coding — and it costs less
BEIJING — The latest Chinese generative artificial intelligence model to take on OpenAI's ChatGPT is offering coding capabilities — at a lower price. Alibaba-backed startup Moonshot released on late Friday night its Kimi K2 model: a low-cost, open source large language model — the two factors that underpinned China-based DeepSeek's industry disruption in January. Open-source technology provides source code access for free, an approach that few U.S. tech giants have taken, other than Meta and Google to some extent. Coincidentally, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced early Saturday that there would be an indefinite delay of its first open-source model yet again due to safety concerns. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment on Kimi K2. One of Kimi K2's strengths is in writing computer code for applications, an area in which businesses see potential to reduce or replace staff with generative AI. OpenAI's U.S. rival Anthropic focused on coding with its Claude Opus 4 model released in late May. In its release announcement on social media platforms X and GitHub, Moonshot claimed Kimi K2 surpassed Claude Opus 4 on two benchmarks, and had better overall performance than OpenAI's coding-focused GPT-4.1 model, based on several industry metrics. "No doubt [Kimi K2 is] a globally competitive model, and it's open sourced," Wei Sun, principal analyst in artificial intelligence at Counterpoint, said in an email Monday. "On top of that, it has lower token costs, making it attractive for large-scale or budget-sensitive deployments," she said. The new K2 model is available via Kimi's app and browser interface for free unlike ChatGPT or Claude, which charge monthly subscriptions for their latest AI models. Kimi is also only charging 15 cents for every 1 million input tokens, and $2.50 per 1 million output tokens, according to its website. Tokens are a way of measuring data for AI model processing. In contrast, Claude Opus 4 charges 100 times more for input — $15 per million tokens — and 30 times more for output — $75 per million tokens. Meanwhile, for every one million tokens, GPT-4.1 charges $2 for input and $8 for output. Moonshot AI said on GitHub that developers can use K2 however they wish, with the only requirement that they display "Kimi K2" on the user interface if the commercial product or service has more than 100 million monthly active users, or makes the equivalent of $20 million in monthly revenue. Initial reviews of K2 on both English and Chinese social media have largely been positive, although there are some reports of hallucinations, a prevalent issue in generative AI, in which the models make up information. Still, K2 is "the first model I feel comfortable using in production since Claude 3.5 Sonnet," Pietro Schirano, founder of startup MagicPath that offers AI tools for design, said in a post on X. Moonshot has open sourced some of its prior AI models. The company's chatbot surged in popularity early last year as China's alternative to ChatGPT, which isn't officially available in the country. But similar chatbots from ByteDance and Tencent have since crowded the market, while tech giant Baidu has revamped its core search engine with AI tools. Kimi's latest AI release comes as investors eye Chinese alternatives to U.S. tech in the global AI competition. Still, despite the excitement about DeepSeek, the privately-held company has yet to announce a major upgrade to its R1 and V3 model. Meanwhile, Manus AI, a Chinese startup that emerged earlier this year as another DeepSeek-type upstart, has relocated its headquarters to Singapore. Over in the U.S., OpenAI also has yet to reveal GPT-5. Work on GPT-5 may be taking up engineering resources, preventing OpenAI from progressing on its open-source model, Counterpoint's Sun said, adding that it's challenging to release a powerful open-source model without undermining the competitive advantage of a proprietary model. Kimi K2 is not the company's only recent release. Moonshot launched a Kimi research model last month and claimed it matched Google's Gemini Deep Research 's 26.9 score and beat OpenAI's version on a benchmark called "Humanity's Last Exam." The Kimi research model even got a mention last week during Elon Musk's xAI release of Grok 4 — which scored 25.4 on its own on the "Humanity's Last Exam" benchmark, but attained a 44.4 score when allowed to use a variety of AI tools and web search. "Kimi-Researcher represents a paradigm shift in agentic AI," said Winston Ma, adjunct professor at NYU School of Law. He was referring to AI's capability of simultaneously making several decisions on its own to complete a complex task. "Instead of merely generating fluent responses, it demonstrates autonomous reasoning at an expert level — the kind of complex cognitive work previously missing from LLMs," Ma said. He is also author of "The Digital War: How China's Tech Power Shapes the Future of AI, Blockchain and Cyberspace."
The Independent
4 days ago
- Automotive
- The Independent
British mountaineer says K2 challenge is ‘one of the world's toughest'
British- Bangladeshi mountaineer Akke Rahman is aiming to climb the world's second highest peak, K2. The 42-year-old hopes to reach the summit before the end of July. Located on the border of Pakistan and China, K2 has a reputation for being extremely challenging to climb because of its steep slopes, avalanches and unpredictable weather. Mr Rahman, based in Oldham, Greater Manchester, is attempting to climb the 14 highest peaks in the world. He started out in climbing by scaling Snowdon in Wales in 2019. In 2020, Mr Rahman climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and Mont Blanc within a week and, later that year, he broke the UK record for climbing Russia's Elbrus – Europe's tallest mountain – after reaching the summit in less than 24 hours. In 2022, he became the first British Muslim to reach the summit of Mount Everest, the world's tallest mountain. He has raised more than £1 million for charity during his mountaineering career. Mr Rahman said compared with other mountains, K2 is 'one of the world's toughest'. He went on: 'When I discovered climbing, I knew I wanted to keep challenging myself by summiting more and more mountains.' Luke Broad, UK brand director for car manufacturer Dacia, which is providing funding to support Mr Rahman's K2 attempt, said: 'Dacia is a brand with outdoor spirit. 'There is no better way of showing our support for adventure and the great outdoors than to support Akke. 'We are really impressed with his drive and determination, so we are proud to support his next challenge.'
Gulf Insider
5 days ago
- Sport
- Gulf Insider
Qatari Princess Conquers Pakistan's ‘Killer Mountain' In A Historic Climb
Qatari royal and elite mountaineer Sheikha Asma Al Thani has made history once again, becoming the first woman from her nation to summit Nanga Parbat. The 8,126‑metre peak in Pakistan's Gilgit‑Baltistan region, is infamously known as the 'Killer Mountain' due to its unforgiving terrain and deadly climbing history. Last week, welebrated Czech mountaineer Klára Kolouchová, 46, tragically died after falling during an expedition on Nanga Parbat. This achievement marks the ninth successful ascent in Sheikha Asma's ambitious mission to conquer all 14 of the world's 'eight-thousanders' — peaks exceeding 8,000 meters. With each climb, she solidifies her place among the elite ranks of high-altitude mountaineers and continues to break barriers for Arab women in extreme adventure sports, according to a report on Facing punishing weather, snowstorms, black ice, and relentless rockfall, Sheikha Asma described Nanga Parbat as one of the toughest challenges of her life. In a heartfelt Instagram post, she wrote: 'Alhamdulillah, Nanga Parbat. My ninth 8000er and one of the toughest climbs I've faced. This mountain tested me in ways I didn't expect… a constant reminder of how fragile life truly is.' She also reflected on the emotional toll and transformative power of the climb: 'There was surrender and there was strength I didn't know I still had. I climb not just to reach summits but to return to what matters.' Flying the flag for women At the summit, Sheikha Asma proudly raised the Qatari flag, a symbolic act of national pride and a powerful message for gender equality. Her ascent is being widely celebrated as a milestone in both mountaineering and the broader movement for women's empowerment in the Arab world and beyond. Her success on Nanga Parbat brings her closer to joining an elite club of climbers who have summited all 14 eight-thousanders, a feat achieved by only a select few worldwide. Global recognition Sheikha Asma's growing list of achievements, which includes Mount Everest, K2, and Makalu, has earned her global recognition. With each summit, she shares vivid reflections and striking visuals on social media, offering rare insights into the emotional and physical challenges of climbing the world's tallest peaks.
