AI startups are seeing record valuations, but many are building on a foundation of cheap, free-to-download Chinese AI models.

Surveying the state of America’s artificial intelligence landscape earlier this year, Misha Laskin was concerned.

Laskin, a theoretical physicist and machine learning engineer who helped create some of Google’s most powerful AI models, saw a growing embrace among American AI companies of free, customizable and increasingly powerful “open” AI models.

But most of these models were being made in China, and these systems were quickly gaining ground on their U.S. competitors.