Oxide and Friends Podcast: The Open Weight Revolution with Simon Willison
Moonshot AI
DeepSeek
Anthropic
Simon Willison joined Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal on the Oxide and Friends podcast to discuss the recent surge of open weight AI models, including Kimi K3's ability to rival proprietary models, accidental cyber incidents, and an open letter on AI leadership signed by major AI figures. The conversation also touched on other topics and revisited predictions from January, adding a new one about the Pope commenting on open models by year-end.
On July 31, 2026, Simon Willison appeared on the Oxide and Friends podcast, hosted by Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, to discuss the past week in AI. The conversation highlighted Kimi K3 as evidence that open weight models can compete with proprietary frontier models, as well as accidental cybersecurity attacks and public letters about Open Weights and American AI Leadership signed by many prominent AI figures, with one notable exception. Although the episode was recorded before recent events, Willison noted that DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 and an embarrassing cyber incident at Anthropic would have been relevant if recorded later. The discussion also covered Golden Gate Claude, the Zizians, Alameda wild turkey attacks, Soviet Marburg virus research, the Lead-crime hypothesis, and other digressions. The group revisited predictions from January and added a new one: the Pope will say something about open models before the end of the year.
Source: Simon Willison —
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