Yang Zhilin says K2 was open-sourced because Moonshot isn't yet fully ahead
In a podcast conversation, answered that K2 was released as open source because Moonshot is not yet fully ahead globally. Acknowledged that this reversed his own position from a year earlier (the leader doesn't open-source; only those behind do). Likened the limits of reasoning-only models to a brain in a vat
Why it matters
The person involved makes explicit that open-weight decisions are a function of competitive ranking, not ideology. The most direct explanation yet of the motive behind China's open-source strategy
Source — Primary sources first; secondary reports are labelled “Press”
Pressdeveloper.cloud.tencent.comhttps://developer.cloud.tencent.com/article/2713239Added in Week 35, 2026 · See that week