Did Meta Kill US AI? What’s Next?
Meta’s open-source strategy is fueling strategic rivals — reshaping the AI power balance with far-reaching consequences.
Did Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta compromise US AI leadership? Perhaps. The bigger concern? He’s poised to do it again — this time, with stakes that could reshape the world.
This isn’t just about competition — it’s about the potential erosion of global security and economic prosperity.
The AI world is abuzz with new models from China, as companies like DeepSeek and TikTok owner Bytedance have released AI models that rival leading US counterparts — at usage costs 20 to 50 times lower. Shockingly, America’s Meta is taking partial credit. Yann LeCun, Chief AI Scientist of Meta, proudly announced the role his company played in the ascent of Chinese AI to threaten US dominance. LeCun wrote, “DeepSeek has profited from … open source (e.g., Pytorch and Llama from Meta). They came up with new ideas and built them on top of other people’s work.”
Longtime Meta Board member Marc Andreessen similarly gushed about the ascent of Chinese AI over the US, writing, “DeepSeek R1 is one of the most amazing and impressive breakthroughs I’ve ever seen — and as open source, a profound gift to the world.”
Besides Andreessen’s deep Meta connection, his venture capital firm a16z is a shareholder in leading Western AI companies such as Elon Musk’s xAI, OpenAI, and Mistral. They all stand to lose significant value by the price war that has ensued. Some may not survive.
By the time OpenAI launched ChatGPT, AI development in many regions, including China, lagged behind the US. Trailing OpenAI, Meta strategically chose to openly share critical AI development insights for free, aiming to outmaneuver its competitors and dominate the market. This move handed adversaries a strategic blueprint, eroding US leadership and introducing grave national security vulnerabilities. While open-source AI has benefited the world in the past, the stakes are different this time.
Meta leveraged the most advanced AI chips from NVIDIA to develop its Llama model. By releasing it as open source, Meta has upended the AI market — undermining competition, forcing rivals to contend with free, high-quality models, and cementing itself as a dominant force in AI innovation. Meanwhile, new rivals are now using Meta’s open-source models to bypass US restrictions on advanced chip sales, rapidly closing the technological gap.
Meta’s actions expose significant regulatory gaps, showing how unchecked AI distribution thrives in an environment of weak oversight — leaving policymakers struggling to respond to AI’s rapid expansion. This raises a crucial question: how can global AI leaders and stakeholders collaborate to ensure AI development is responsible, equitable, and aligned with global security and economic priorities? By giving away its AI freely, Meta has created a wide range of negative externalities, further exposing the regulatory gaps that enable such unchecked distribution.
AI experts see a range of potential AI risks. While “rogue AI” is one concern, more urgent risks include misinformation, fraud, deepfakes, and other human-driven crime. Open-source AI enables much of this. Once powerful AI is released, there is little authorities can do. Experts can easily remove any guardrails developers added and use the AI for malicious purposes at an unprecedented scale. Despite growing concerns, Meta continues to sidestep accountability, placing the burden on users and policymakers to manage the risks associated with AI’s rapid deployment. Further, by discontinuing content moderation, Meta’s platforms could become the most powerful misinformation engines ever, driving political and economic instability worldwide
The problem? Meta has plans to make things worse. It is creating an even more powerful system called Llama 4. All indications suggest it plans to release it as open source again, meaning every AI rival of the US will have the opportunity to once again leapfrog US AI companies without collecting the same data and buying the best chips.
Meta’s unrestricted open-source approach is accelerating AI advancements worldwide. Strategic rivals, including China and other leading nations, are leveraging this access to rapidly enhance their AI capabilities — reshaping the global innovation landscape and heightening economic and security concerns.
Would all the world’s bad actors also have unrestricted access to this powerful AI for malicious purposes?
Yes.
Mark Zuckerberg’s relentless pursuit of dominance raises serious questions — how much longer can we afford to ignore the warning signs?
If Meta continues down this path, it’s not just businesses at risk — it’s global security, innovation, and public trust.
Time is running out — urgent global action and stronger AI governance are critical to safeguard security, economic stability, and technological leadership before it’s too late.
