Is open source AI really ahead of the frontier? 3 builders weigh in. | E25

<p>This Week In Startups is made possible by:</p><p><br></p><p>PAYPAL OPEN</p><p><br></p><p>Today’s show:</p><p>China’s Alibaba just dropped a 2.4 trillion parameter open weight model that the company claims only trails Anthropic’s flagship among the major frontier rivals. Of course, this happened the very same week that the US government appears to have backed off from banning these models stateside entirely.</p><p>Are these models anywhere close to actually catching up to the latest and greatest releases from US labs like Anthropic and OpenAI? Really seems to depend on who you ask. (Even long time friends JCal and Elon Musk can’t see eye to eye on it.)</p><p>So on TWiAI Ep 25, we welcomed on Poolside AI CTO Eiso Kant, EXO Labs co-founder Alex Cheema, and Qloo founder Alex Elias to break down just how close Chinese labs are to catching up with the biggest and best models… and how long it will take US open weight builders to catch up.</p><p>PLUS we explore the cutting edge of AI-powered baby sleep monitors, consider Hank Green’s public AI apology, and dig into sci-fi author Ursula K. LeGuin’s “hand-mind” thesis.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Guests:</strong></p><p><br></p><p>Eiso Kant on X:<a href="https://x.com/eisokant"> <u>https://x.com/eisokant</u></a></p><p>Poolside:<a href="https://poolside.ai/"> <u>https://poolside.ai/</u></a></p><p>Alex Elias on X:<a href="https://x.com/ape"> <u>https://x.com/ape</u></a></p><p>Qloo:<a href="https://www.qloo.com/"> <u>https://www.qloo.com/</u></a></p><p>Alex Cheema on X:<a href="https://x.com/alexocheema"> <u>https://x.com/alexocheema</u></a></p><p>EXO Labs:<a href="https://exolabs.net/"> <u>https://exolabs.net/</u></a></p><p>Local AI benchmark platform:<a href="https://local.ai/"> <u>https://local.ai/</u></a></p><p><strong>Relevant Links</strong></p><p>Qwen3.8-Max launch announcement:<a href="https://qwen.ai/blog?id=qwen3.8"> <u>https://qwen.ai/blog?id=qwen3.8</u></a></p><p>Bloomberg on Qwen3.8-Max launch:<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-03/alibaba-drops-another-china-ai-model-with-breakthrough-performance"> <u>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-03/alibaba-drops-another-china-ai-model-with-breakthrough-performance</u></a></p><p>NYT: “White House Whipsaws Silicon Valley Over AI Rules”:<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/technology/ai-washington-regulation-whiplash.html"> <u>https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/technology/ai-washington-regulation-whiplash.html</u></a></p><p>Nvidia: “Open Weights and American AI Leadership”:<a href="https://images.nvidia.com/pdf/Open-Weights-and-American-AI-Leadership.pdf"> <u>https://images.nvidia.com/pdf/Open-Weights-and-American-AI-Leadership.pdf</u></a></p><p>World Bank: World Development Report 2026:<a href="https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/1e4e52502104a331fb42cba0d4afa995-0050062026/original/WDR2026-Concept-Note.pdf"> <u>https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/1e4e52502104a331fb42cba0d4afa995-0050062026/original/WDR2026-Concept-Note.pdf</u></a></p><p>Hank Green apology on Reddit:<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/nerdfighters/comments/1vbmoj5/comment/p0vzmog/"> <u>https://www.reddit.com/r/nerdfighters/comments/1vbmoj5/comment/p0vzmog/</u></a></p><p>Taylor Lorenz responds to Hank Green on X:<a href="https://x.com/TaylorLorenz/status/2083272682188206564"> <u>https://x.com/TaylorLorenz/status/2083272682188206564</u></a></p><p>TechCrunch: Substack partners with Pangram:<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/22/substacks-new-tool-tells-you-whos-been-writing-their-newsletters-with-ai/"> <u>https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/22/substacks-new-tool-tells-you-whos-been-writing-their-newsletters-with-ai/</u></a></p><p>Amazon: Ursula K. Le Guin’s “Always Coming Home” expanded edition:<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ursula-K-Guin-Authors-Expanded/dp/1598536036"> <u>https://www.amazon.com/Ursula-K-Guin-Authors-Expanded/dp/1598536036</u></a></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><strong>Timestamps:</strong></p><p>0:00 Guest intr