US, China and APEC economies back open-source AI with strong security assurances

At the APEC Digital Weeks in Chengdu, China, the 21 APEC member economies, including the US and China, released a joint statement supporting open-source artificial intelligence development with 'strong security assurance.' The statement, the first at a ministerial level to include open-source cooperation according to China's Minister Li Lecheng, emphasizes security, data protection, and intellectual property rights. This marks a shift from open-source AI's libertarian roots toward greater state oversight, as China leads in open-source models like DeepSeek while US firms like Anthropic offer closed, paid models. Analysts note the debate is moving beyond open vs. closed to building trusted ecosystems. The APEC Business Advisory Council also urged ministers to prepare for quantum computing-era encryption challenges.