Kevin Kelly: If the future cost of the token is crucial, the Chinese open-source model has a significant advantage

BlockBeats News, July 18th – Renowned futurist and "Father of the Silicon Valley" Kevin Kelly, during an on-site media interview at the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference, stated that if one day everyone starts to care about the cost of Tokens, but because of the existence of open-source models, it is an advantage for Chinese AI.

Kevin Kelly mentioned that Token cost has become increasingly important, and currently, people don't seem to care about the cost, "but I believe when we are constantly consuming such a huge Token, everyone will start to care about the cost; if you can offer only one-tenth of the cost of Anthropic, it will change the game."

However, Kevin Kelly also pointed out that the open-source model needs enough funding to sustain its operation because it doesn't make money like the closed-source model, "Building these large models requires significant funding."