Proposed Tax on Running Chinese Open-Source AI Models
beffjezos · x · 2026-07-19
Addressing the business dilemma caused by open-source AI models, the author proposes a strategy. He argues that if model development cannot achieve privatized returns, AI capital spending growth will inevitably slow, and China is trying to exploit this to squeeze the U.S. capitalist system.
To avoid increasing regulatory uncertainty for open-source AI, he suggests an 'import tariff' strategy: impose a per-token tax on businesses using Chinese open-source models to provide services (rate based on the model's equivalent market price).
This aims to protect profit margins of U.S. frontier closed-source labs to sustain their reinvestment capacity, while creating a competitive advantage for open-source models from the U.S. and its allies.
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