So what is your take on Kimmy K3 and how good it is?

Yeah, no, this is, and it's good to state the date when we record this because this conversation just changes so fast.

Who knows what will change tomorrow or who knows what tomorrow will bring.

You know, it's a really complicated picture, right? On a technical perspective, this is China's largest open-weight model yet.

And by some measures, according to artificial analysis and some other benchmark websites, in some aspects of measuring model performance, this exceeds even Fable 5, Anthropix Fable 5 model.

And other aspects, though, it's still behind.

So we want to keep that in mind.

Why do you think that was?

So can you talk a little bit about why this is important?

Yeah, so like I said, this goes back to early days of the Trump administration, back to 2017 when Huawei, 5G, and digital infrastructure really became the centerpiece, at least the opening chapter of this turn in U.S.-China tech relations.

And it's a theme that has echoed in every subsequent strategic tech sector since, which is that digital infrastructure is a critical infrastructure and underlies any nation's technological development.

I remember talking to a VC at the time where, recently, about recounting the history of this.

It was no surprise to industry that we were offshoring the digital infrastructure manufacturing capabilities to China, but to the policymaker in Washington, in 2017, the policy community really awoke up to this phenomenon, how we were offshoring this critical piece of our digital infrastructure.

And the government at the time and the Trump administration at the time identified key supply chain vulnerabilities involved in this shifting dynamic and cybersecurity vulnerabilities that this posed as we offshored this capability to China.

So this really kicked off a whole policy process.

So to win that 6G race, we need to invest in the research and talent ecosystems early on.

Just

strategic plans.

But regardless, the R1 paper came out on Inauguration Day.

And I think regardless of the intent, it has turned into, in essence, a strategic surprise along the same lines of the J-20 and the Mate 60 Pro.

And regardless of the intent, it is now being interpreted as China is now on the stage, on the scene.

My question going forward is really how Beijing will react to this It's definitely a source of pride, I think, for Beijing.

Again, the small, scrappy startup having developed this model based on open source and really revolutionizing and giving China a new name for itself and whether or not it can innovate, whether or not it can break through barriers in spite of U.S. export controls.

What's your take on it?

We're talking about the release of yet another memo, but before we do that, I just wanted to ask David and Abby to talk a little bit about themselves, how did they get here, and anything they want to share about their previous life.

Sure, yeah, I can start.

As I think the saying goes, looking back on your career, it makes sense looking back on it, but when you're going through it, it's a very circular and winding path.

But fresh out of grad school, worked at a small, scrappy NGO for a couple years, and then worked at the United Nations Association.

Oh, okay.

And so it was a great introduction, actually, to D.C., yeah.

It's a great introduction to just the vibrant NGO community that's in D.C. It's a grassroots-based organization, so did a lot of community building, that kind of thing.

Yeah.