Kevin Kelly: If token costs are crucial in the future, China’s open-source models have a huge advantage

Odaily Planet Daily reports that on July 18, 2026, at the on-site World Artificial Intelligence Conference, renowned futurist and “father of the Silicon Valley spirit” Kevin Kelly said in a media interview that if one day everyone starts to care about the cost of Tokens, then because open-source models exist, it is an advantage for China’s AI.

Kevin Kelly noted that the cost of Token consumption is becoming increasingly important, and that people currently do not seem to care about costs. “But I think when we are consuming such a huge number of Tokens all the time, people will start to care (about cost). If you can provide a cost that is only one tenth of Anthropic’s, then it will overturn the situation.” However, Kevin Kelly also reminded that the open-source model requires enough funding to keep running, because it is not as profitable as a closed-source model. “Building these large models requires massive funding.” (The Paper)