The launch of the latest AI model from a Chinese company — Moonshot AI’s Kimi — reignited debates around American competitiveness and open versus proprietary AI.

While there was plenty of conversation on social media, it seems the debate is also happening behind the scenes in Washington, D.C., where OpenAI and Anthropic have reportedly lobbied regulators with concern about open Chinese models.

On the latest episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Sean O’Kane, and I discussed why this seems to be such a hot button issue. Beyond suggesting that certain folks should “touch grass” rather than spending their weekends arguing on X, Sean noted that in many ways, this “feels like we’re seeing repeats of prior freakouts,” with everyone in Silicon Valley “expecting that something is going to arrive and blow everything else away.”

And Kirsten noted that putting heavy restrictions on Chinese AI models could primarily benefit a handful of companies: “Are we accelerating and ensuring that Americans win the AI race, or are we ensuring that certain frontier labs do better than others?

Keep reading for an excerpt of our conversation, edited for length and clarity.

Anthony Ha: For folks who have followed the discourse around Chinese AI, this will probably be very, very familiar from the launch of DeepSeek, where basically a Chinese model comes out; on some benchmarks, it does as well, or at least seems competitive with some of the frontier models; and a certain portion of the tech industry loses their mind. 

Some of this [debate] got extra scrutiny because one of the people posting about it was [an executive] at OpenAI. But in general, there [is] this recurring question of: Can Chinese companies beat US companies, at least in some aspects, and do it much more cheaply and in a much more open way?

Sean O’Kane: Yeah, there are many elements of this that feel like we’re seeing repeats of prior freakouts. I think one of my favorites is: Everybody is so ready [for] and so expecting that something is going to arrive and blow everything else away. And I think my favorite example of that this past week was people showing off that “My gosh, Kimi made in 30 minutes an entire replication of macOS.” And yeah, it made a pretty impressive graphical reproduction of what macOS looks like, but it’s not an OS.

We keep seeing these things happen over and over again, where everybody’s so jumpy in the tech industry. And I think in particular, with some of the Chinese models that come out, there’s this expectation, and I think this gets to the core of why people reacted the way they reacted last weekend. (Also, by the way: Go outside, touch grass, it’s the weekend. Everybody in the industry was trading barbs on Twitter all weekend.) But this jumpiness is really interesting to me because we’re now a week out and I don’t think anybody’s feeling like the end is nigh like they were a week ago.

Kirsten Korosec: We have a really great story by one of our reporters, Tim Fernholz, who tries to unpack the psychosis around this here in the United States. He points to a number of reasons. And concludes — and I don’t want to conclude it for him, but I think that there’s one that rises more to the top than others. 

There’s concerns that these Chinese open weight models might have an implicit bias towards China, there’s another worry about security risks and guardrails. But there’s also a pretty big idea here, which is protectionism, and who is going to quote-unquote “win the race”? Is it going to be the US or China? And that seems to be driving a lot of what the fear is. 

I don’t know, Anthony, if you agree with that?

Anthony: I completely agree. I think the China aspect always adds this certain level of hysteria. And that’s not to say that people shouldn’t be concerned about how the U.S. stacks up against China across different industries. But it gets so amped up.

The other thing this reminds me of is the discussion around TikTok a few years ago. And again, it wasn’t that I thought that the concerns around TikTok were totally made up, but that the level of how panicked people got — it seems as soon as you add the word China to any discussion, things just ramp up dramatically.  And then in this case, it’s linked to this discussion about open [weights] and this idea that AI is so powerful and so dangerous that the only way we can control it is with these proprietary models from these American frontier companies. 

Obviously, most people saying this [have] reasons why they want to say that. David Sacks, who was the AI czar for the Trump administration [and] now has a different role in the Trump administration, was shouting on X about how, “I can’t believe people are opposing data centers, we’re tying ourselves in knots, there’s too much regulation.” And so it’s a way to argue for the positions that they already had around AI. “My gosh, if China beats us, that’s unthinkable, so you have to do what I want to do anyway.”

Kirsten: Right, and if you were to put across-the-board bans on Chinese open weight models — I’m not saying that there aren’t real concerns here, but let’s just play that out. If we were to do that, it would benefit models created by OpenAI, for instance, and it would force enterprises to use those as opposed to using models like Kimi.

So you really have to ask the question: Are we accelerating and ensuring that Americans win the AI race, or are we ensuring that certain frontier labs do better than others?

Sean: At this point, we should say a lot of this discussion really got kicked off by the head of strategic futures at OpenAI, Dean Ball, who was the first one to come out with this really long post mentioning some of these concerns.

Part of me thinks the reaction to this was because people disagreed with what Dean wrote. Part of me also thinks the reaction was driven by the fact that he kind of just said the thing out loud. He basically said the US should create regulatory FUD — fear, uncertainty, and doubt — and muck up the ability for these open weight models to compete with the US. [Ball later backed away from this argument.]

And to me, I think you can read in some of the responses from folks, like, “You’re not supposed to say that out loud, Dean.”

The cyclospora outbreak affecting produce from Taylor Farms de Mexico has sickened over 1,600 people across five states, including Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia. It’s one in a long line of severe produce outbreaks, but this time, I’m reconsidering how I approach food safety, given that the greens meant to nourish us continue to pose contamination risks. 

Over the last year and a half, I’ve used my Gardyn Studio, a hydroponic growing system, to grow my own produce in my small NYC apartment. I’ve harvested arugula, kale, lettuce, peppers, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, herbs and edible flowers, even throughout the winter — and, more importantly, I’ve had full control over the safety of my produce.

What to know about the 2026 cyclospora outbreak

Cyclospora is transmitted through food and water contaminated with the parasite, with symptoms typically manifesting approximately 1 week after exposure, though cases can range from two to 14 days or longer. The 2026 numbers represent a significant increase from the 249 cases reported in the US during the same period last year.

According to The Cleveland Clinic, symptoms of cyclospora infection often include sudden watery stools and even explosive diarrhea. Other common symptoms include:

• Stomach cramps 
• Bloating, increased gas and burping
• Nausea
• Unintentional weight loss
• Loss of appetite
• Extreme fatigue or weakness

While home-growing your produce doesn’t eliminate all food safety risks, it can eliminate the specific contamination risks present in mass industrial distribution systems and exposure to pesticides. Given these risks, many are looking for ways to bypass mass distribution entirely. This is why I started using the Gardyn Studio.

Nasha Addarich Martinez/CNET

Why I switched to the Gardyn Studio

The Gardyn Studio is a compact, 4.5-foot hydroponic tower with 16 growing slots, LED grow lights and a mobile app that manages your growing from start to finish. Having used it for over a year, I have a clear sense of its benefits and shortcomings.

I appreciate how self-sufficient the device is: You insert the pods, set the lighting schedule, add water and plant food, and refresh the tank every few weeks. Other than that, the plants pretty much grow on their own. Not every pod is a success, though. In every cycle, at least two pods fail to grow. While Gardyn will send replacement pods, you will need the Gardyn Nursery (a separate $80 device) to grow the sprouts before you can insert them into the Studio.

I’ve found the harvesting time to be quick. My arugula reaches maturity in about three to four weeks. The Kale takes about five weeks. In both cases, the taste and quality are unsurprisingly better than store-bought greens.

The Gardyn Studio costs $579 and is great for small spaces. If you have a larger home, you can also consider the Gardyn Home ($899), which fits 30 growing slots, compared to the 16 on the Studio.

There’s also an optional membership that costs between $25 and $39 a month or $259 a year, which includes monthly credits you can use to buy more plants and access to Kelby, the AI gardener that will automate watering cycles and lighting based on your specific plants’ life cycles and the local environment. It also sends push notifications to the Gardyn app to alert you when to add water, add plant food or harvest.

Last year, a CNET Survey found that US adults who shop for groceries waste an average of $125 a month on food that’s not cooked or eaten. That’s $1,500 a year. I rarely waste food grown in the Gardyn since I harvest it as needed, so I rarely end up with excess greens wilting away in the fridge.

Gardyn specs at a glance

The pros and cons

While I use my Gardyn year-round, there are things to consider before committing to it. The upfront cost of $579 puts the Gardyn Studio in the same category as high-end kitchen appliances, but the benefits of growing my own produce at home and no longer having to buy it make it worth it to me.

Pros:

• Eliminates contamination risks
• Compact design that fits in small spaces
• Minimal maintenance (no soil or gardening skills required)
• Responsive customer service for pod replacements
• Reduced pesticide exposure

Cons:

• High upfront costs
• Some pods fail to grow
• Ongoing pod and nutrient costs
• No ability to grow root vegetables

For those without access to hydroponic systems

Nasha Addarich Martínez/CNET

Growing your produce at home is still valuable, even at a smaller scale. Windowsill herb gardens require minimal equipment and investment. My first home garden was in a 10-inch planter, where I grew cilantro, basil and parsley, which I put on my windowsill.

Buying from local farms and building relationships with local farmers’ markets establishes direct supply chains from the source, without the middlemen (distribution centers). Inquiring about produce sourcing at your local supermarket creates incentives for transparency and regional cultivation. These approaches won’t prevent every outbreak, but they reduce dependence on centralized supply chains and create accountability between producers and consumers.

Food safety doesn’t (and shouldn’t) have to be a luxury. It does, however, require deliberate choices about where food originates and who controls its cultivation. The Gardyn Studio is one option among many, and the one that works for my lifestyle and home. What matters most is recognizing that alternatives to mass food systems exist.

Nasha Addarich Martínez

Managing Editor

Nasha is a Managing Editor for CNET, overseeing our sleep and wellness verticals. She is a nutrition, mental health, fitness and sleep science enthusiast. Her passion for mindful and holistic practices transcends her personal life and profoundly influences her editorial approach, as she weaves evidence-based insights with practical advice to inspire readers to lead healthier, more balanced lives. Throughout her career, she’s covered various topics including financial services, technology, travel and wellness.

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The European answer to TBPN is here and ready to go live five days a week, starting June 27. 

Luke Knight and Ronan Chambers first launched the London-based European Technology Network (ETN) last October, breaking down tech trends and news during a two-day-a-week live stream. Right now, the show is live-streamed on X and YouTube and has garnered more than 5 million views.

On Monday, the network announced a $1.6 million seed round from top players in the media ecosystem, including Powerhouse Capital, Axel Springer SE (which owns Business Insider and Politico), the popular media publication LadBible, and angel investors from OpenAI and DeepMind. With this fresh capital, the network is announcing its largest expansion yet. 

It’s now moving into a big studio in Kings Cross (where all the hot London AI startups are situated), expanding the team (right now of just eight), launching a newsletter, and is, starting today, moving into a five-day-a-week live show schedule, which will soon see Knight and Chambers interview the likes of George Robson (a partner at Sequoia) and Rishi Sunak (former UK Prime Minister and senior advisor to Anthropic and Microsoft). 

Speaking to TechCrunch, Knight and Chambers said ETN has already become a hot stop on the press tour for European startups — they’ve spoken to the founder of Syntheisa, the CFO of Legora, the founder of Granola, and Kanishka Narayan, the UK’s first AI Minister. They’ve even had American investors stop by the show when they are in town, including one from Andreessen Horowitz.

“ETN was born out of a gaping hole in the industry,” Chambers told TechCrunch. “It’s centered around pace.” He said the current media ecosystem in the UK cannot keep up with how fast the tech scene is moving. For example, so far this year, London startups have raised $14.7 billion according to Dealroom. Six companies have raised more than $500 million: Wayve, Superintelligence, ElevenLabs, Recursive, Ineffable Intelligence, and Isomorphic Labs, the latter three of which were founded by DeepMind alumni.

“These are things that have never happened in Europe before,” Chambers continued, referring to the speed at which capital is flowing through the ecosystem. As the show became more popular, Chambers said they were getting around 70 pitches a week from guests looking to come on the show. They would try and cram 12 interviews into two hours, twice a week, but eventually it got too much. “We needed an outlet that could move at the pace of that,” he said of both the interest in the show and how fast Europe’s tech ecosystem is moving, “which is the reason we’re going from two days a week to five days a week.” 

The five-day format will look quite similar to the two-day format. There will be a live show from 12 p.m. UK time to 3 p.m., breaking down trending stories, and then for two hours, they will have guests on the show talking about whatever they want. Chambers said they also want to start hosting debates, roundtables, and a Shark Tank-style pitching session on the show.

“We want to make it as useful as we can for the ecosystem,” Chambers said. “There needs to be more discourse around AI in Europe. There needs to be more discourse around venture capital and cash flowing into the ecosystem. There needs to be more discourse around the amazing things that are happening in the tech ecosystem, and our role is to be the stage in which people can shout about all the amazing things they’re doing.” 

The show makes its money from ad dollars, like most media publications, and big-name sponsors already include prediction market Polymarket, blockchain company Base, and the AI audio darling ElevenLabs. 

When asked about the influence TBPN has had on them, Knight and Chambers said they indeed do look at John Coogan and Jordi Hays, founders of TBPN (which recently sold to OpenAI for what some say was a nine-figure sum), as pioneers of this new tech media ecosystem. The show became a place for tech guests to appear and chat with friendly faces, announcing new product releases, hires, or funding news. “My thinking was, if we can have an ITV and a BBC, why wouldn’t we have a regional version of this?” Chambers continued. 

Europe is a big place, though, with more than 40 different countries and over 200 languages spoken (24 of which are recognized by the European Union). Chambers said that although ETN will report from London, he and Knight are making an effort to bring on guests from across the continent. Aside from bringing guests into the studio, they also travel to the hottest tech conferences around Europe. For example, they’ve broadcast from the Panathenaea Conference in Athens and from inside the Louvre in Paris for the RAISE AI Summit. 

“You have all these different cultures, these different minds coming together and creating different products,” Chambers said. “You get a taste of what makes [Europe] a superpower.” 

With all this, they said they would never turn an American founder away should they want to come on the show. “It’s a European technology network, but we think there’s massive [global] opportunities,” Chambers said. Knight added to that, noting how often conversations pit the European tech ecosystem against that of the U.S. 

“We are globally optimistic,” Knight said. “We are pushing global prosperity from Europe. Wherever you want to go and build your company, wherever is the best place to go and build that company, go and do that, and we will shout for you to go and do that.” 

He and Chambers also don’t necessarily see themselves as journalists; rather, they consider themselves tech insiders curious about what is going on and why. They also don’t see themselves as replacing traditional media and instead intend to work in tandem with those publications. “We rely on traditional media,” Chambers said, adding that is how they find much of the news that they to talk about on ETN. 

Overall, the duo hopes to help document the stories coming from the new wave of European success, from ElevenLabs in London to Lovable in Stockholm, to help the upcoming generation understand that technology is one way to drive a nation forward.

Discussing the impact of European success stories, Chambers said, “It riles up the next generation to the point where it’s no longer cool to finish university and go into banking or consulting. People want to leave university and go straight into building a startup, and I think that’s an amazing thing.”

As the worlds of networking and security increasingly collide, the role of network engineers is also evolving. IT teams are now on the frontlines of an organization’s cybersecurity, monitoring what’s happening across traffic, users, devices to spot issues and threats early, and act before they escalate.

When network and security architectures are integrated well, complexity decreases while performance increases, security gets stronger and latency lowers; and overall, day-to-day operations become simpler.