Latest news with #KimiK2


NBC News
5 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.'


CNBC
14 hours 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."


Geeky Gadgets
15 hours ago
- Business
- Geeky Gadgets
Kimi K2 : Open-Weight AI Model That's Breaking Barriers
What if the future of coding wasn't just about automation but about creating a truly collaborative partner—one that learns, adapts, and evolves with you? Enter Kimi K2, a new AI model that's redefining how we think about coding. With its open-weight innovation and a staggering one trillion parameters, Kimi K2 doesn't just compete with proprietary models like GPT-4.1—it challenges the very notion of exclusivity in AI development. Imagine a tool that not only deciphers complex coding challenges but also invites the global community to build upon its foundation, fostering a culture of transparency and shared progress. This isn't just another model; it's a movement toward a more inclusive, agentic future for AI-driven coding. In this breakdown, Prompt Engineering explore how Kimi K2's sparse architecture and extended context length of 128,000 tokens enable it to tackle real-world coding problems with unmatched precision and scale. You'll discover why its open-weight framework is more than a technical choice—it's a philosophical shift in how AI models are developed and shared. From its impressive performance benchmarks to its seamless multi-tool integration, Kimi K2 is setting a new standard for what's possible in AI coding. But what does this mean for developers, and how does it shape the broader AI landscape? Let's unpack the significance of this fantastic moment and what it signals for the future of innovation. What Sets Kimi K2 Apart? Kimi K2's defining feature is its sparse architecture, which activates 32 billion parameters per query through the use of 384 experts. This design ensures both efficiency and scalability, allowing the model to tackle complex coding challenges with ease. Its extended context length of 128,000 tokens allows it to process large volumes of input data, producing detailed and nuanced outputs. The open-weight nature of Kimi K2 further distinguishes it, making the model accessible on platforms such as Hugging Face and Open Router. This transparency fosters collaboration within the AI community, encouraging developers to build upon its capabilities and explore new applications. Performance That Competes with the Best Kimi K2 delivers exceptional results in coding benchmarks, achieving a 66% success rate on single attempts and 72% on multi-attempt tasks in SweepBench. These figures not only surpass GPT-4.1 but also position Kimi K2 as a strong competitor to proprietary models like Cloud Opus 4. In real-world scenarios, Kimi K2 demonstrates high reliability, excelling in live coding tasks and tool integration. Its ability to adapt to diverse coding environments makes it an invaluable resource for developers seeking precision, speed, and flexibility in their workflows. Kimi K2 – The DeepSeek Moment for Agentic Coding Watch this video on YouTube. Uncover more insights about Agentic coding in previous articles we have written. Training Methodology and Optimization Kimi K2 was trained on 15 trillion tokens using the MoonClip optimizer, a method designed to maximize token efficiency and synthesize agentic data. This approach ensures the model produces high-quality outputs while minimizing computational overhead. Reinforcement learning played a pivotal role in enhancing Kimi K2's tool usage, with a focus on practical applications rather than abstract reasoning or theoretical tasks. This targeted training methodology equips the model to address real-world coding challenges effectively, prioritizing usability and performance over unnecessary complexity. Core Capabilities of Kimi K2 Kimi K2 is purpose-built for agentic coding, emphasizing speed, efficiency, and practicality. Its key capabilities include: Support for multi-tool usage within a single session, allowing seamless integration of various coding tools to streamline workflows. within a single session, allowing seamless integration of various coding tools to streamline workflows. Web search integration for real-time access to external information, enhancing its ability to provide accurate and up-to-date solutions. for real-time access to external information, enhancing its ability to provide accurate and up-to-date solutions. A user-friendly interface designed to accommodate both novice and experienced developers, making sure accessibility across skill levels. These features make Kimi K2 a versatile and efficient tool for developers, enhancing productivity and simplifying complex coding tasks. Licensing and Accessibility Kimi K2 is distributed under a modified MIT license, which requires attribution for large-scale commercial use. This licensing model strikes a balance between openness and fair use, encouraging innovation while protecting intellectual property. Developers can explore and use the model for free on platforms like making sure accessibility to a broad audience. This approach reinforces Kimi K2's commitment to fostering a collaborative and inclusive AI ecosystem. Significance in the AI Landscape The release of Kimi K2 comes at a critical juncture in the AI industry, where the debate between open-weight and proprietary models continues to shape the future of innovation. With delays in the release of OpenAI's open-weight models, Kimi K2 highlights the potential of open frameworks to drive progress and collaboration. By excelling in specialized coding tasks, Kimi K2 underscores the value of tailored AI solutions in addressing specific industry challenges. Its success demonstrates the growing importance of transparency and accessibility in advancing AI technology, paving the way for a more inclusive and innovative landscape. Limitations and Areas for Improvement While Kimi K2 offers numerous advantages, it is not without limitations. These include: Challenges in handling tasks that require complex animations or highly specialized reasoning, which may limit its applicability in certain domains. or highly specialized reasoning, which may limit its applicability in certain domains. Licensing restrictions on large-scale commercial use, which could pose barriers for some organizations seeking to adopt the model. These limitations highlight areas for future development, making sure that Kimi K2 continues to evolve and meet the diverse needs of the AI and coding communities. Why Kimi K2 Represents Progress in AI-Driven Coding Kimi K2 exemplifies the potential of open-weight AI models to redefine the standards of coding efficiency and adaptability. By combining state-of-the-art architecture, optimized training methodologies, and practical capabilities, it challenges the dominance of proprietary models and fosters a culture of openness and collaboration. Although there is room for improvement, Kimi K2's achievements signal a promising future for specialized AI development. Its success not only sets a new benchmark for agentic coding but also reinforces the importance of transparency and inclusivity in shaping the next generation of AI technologies. Media Credit: Prompt Engineering Filed Under: AI, Top News Latest Geeky Gadgets Deals Disclosure: Some of our articles include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, Geeky Gadgets may earn an affiliate commission. Learn about our Disclosure Policy.

The Hindu
17 hours ago
- Business
- The Hindu
China's Moonshot AI releases open-source model to reclaim market position
Chinese artificial intelligence startup Moonshot AI released a new open-source AI model on Friday, joining a wave of similar releases from local rivals, as it seeks to reclaim its position in the competitive domestic market. The model, called Kimi K2, features enhanced coding capabilities and excels at general agent tasks and tool integration, allowing it to break down complex tasks more effectively, the company said in a statement. Moonshot claimed the model outperforms mainstream open-source models in some areas, including DeepSeek's V3, and rival capabilities of leading U.S. models such as those from Anthropic in certain functions such as coding. The release follows a trend among Chinese companies toward open-sourcing AI models, contrasting with many U.S. tech giants like OpenAI and Google that keep their most advanced AI models proprietary. Some American firms, including Meta Platforms , have also released open-source models. Open-sourcing allows developers to showcase their technological capabilities and expand developer communities as well as their global influence, a strategy likely to help China counter U.S. efforts to limit Beijing's tech progress. Other Chinese companies that have released open-source models include DeepSeek, Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu. Founded in 2023 by Tsinghua University graduate Yang Zhilin, Moonshot is among China's prominent AI startups and is backed by internet giants including Alibaba. The company gained prominence in 2024 when users flocked to its platform for its long-text analysis capabilities and AI search functions. However, its standing has declined this year following DeepSeek's release of low-cost models, including the R1 model launched in January that disrupted the global AI industry. Moonshot's Kimi application ranked third in monthly active users last August but dropped to seventh place by June, according to a Chinese website that tracks AI products.

Ammon
2 days ago
- Business
- Ammon
OpenAI delays the release of its open model, again
Ammon News - OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Friday the company is delaying the release of its open model, which was already pushed back a month earlier in this summer. OpenAI had planned to release the model next week, however Altman said the company is pushing it back indefinitely for further safety testing. 'We need time to run additional safety tests and review high-risk areas. we are not yet sure how long it will take us,' said Altman in a post on X. 'While we trust the community will build great things with this model, once weights are out, they can't be pulled back. This is new for us and we want to get it right.' OpenAI's open model release is one of the most highly anticipated AI events of the summer, alongside the ChatGPT maker's expected release of GPT-5. Unlike GPT-5, OpenAI's open model will be available for developers to freely download and run locally. Through both of these launches, OpenAI will attempt to demonstrate that it is still Silicon Valley's leading AI lab — an increasingly difficult task as xAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic invest billions of dollars in their own efforts. The delay means developers will have to wait a little longer to try the first open model OpenAI has released in years. TechCrunch previously reported that OpenAI's open model is expected to have similar reasoning capabilities to the company's o-series of models, and that OpenAI planned for it to be best-in-class compared to other open models. The ecosystem of open AI models became a little more competitive this week. Earlier on Friday, Chinese AI startup Moonshot AI launched Kimi K2, a one-trillion-parameter open AI model that outperforms OpenAI's GPT-4.1 AI model on several agentic-coding benchmarks. In June, when Altman announced the initial delays around OpenAI's open model, he noted that the company had achieved something 'unexpected and quite amazing,' but didn't elaborate on what that was. 'Capability wise, we think the model is phenomenal — but our bar for an open source model is high and we think we need some more time to make sure we're releasing a model we're proud of along every axis,' said Aidan Clark, OpenAI's VP of research who is leading the open model team, in a post on X Friday. TechCrunch previously reported that OpenAI leaders have discussed enabling the open AI model to connect to the company's cloud-hosted AI models for complex queries. However, it's unclear if these features will make it into the final open model.