AI model independence, and why we care about it so much

Last time we sat down to record an episode about model independence, our own podcast agent talked us out of it and we made an episode about becoming a self-improving company instead. In the weeks since, Kimi K3 and GLM 5.2 arrived, and the question got more urgent rather than less.Arjé Cahn, our CPO, and Ian Zein, our CEO, on what model independence actually means now that the open weight models are this good.Along the way:* the prospect who looked across the table at Arjé and said: “yes, but those are Chinese models”* why “local” means two completely different things, and only one of them fits on a laptop* why we host in Dublin and Helsinki, and what a hosting company wants from you that a model maker does not* the turning point, and why it rhymes with the week developers stopped writing their own code* building the Excel add-in, and what happened when Kimi read a screenshot of a deliberately broken spreadsheet* three fears about Chinese models, taken one at a time: spyware, coloured answers, and active influence* why a model running on your own hardware is a file rather than an application, and how to prove that to yourself in an afternoon* and the argument that has nothing to do with China at all: if you only have one model, you have nothing to negotiate withIf you take one thing away, make it this: choose the model per workflow, and keep the ability to walk away from it.Trusted Intelligence by Aimable. What’s happening in AI, from the team making it safe to use on sensitive data. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit trustedintelligence.substack.com