Suppose somebody has been rubbing gasoline on their body since the 1970s. Would you marry that person even if they smelled terrible? But suppose this person starts showering every day so they smell a little better. They also famously get along with nearly everyone on the planet and makes a lot of money. What about marrying this person now? This is the question that we face today in the world of databases. SQL is 50 years old. It started off smelling kind of funny, but it has gotten better over the years. There have been many attempts at replacing it, but none have succeeded.

I’m thrilled that DeepSeek-R1 was released as an open weight model, with a technical report that shares many details. In contrast, a number of U.S. companies have pushed for regulation to stifle open source by hyping up hypothetical AI dangers such as human extinction. It is now clear that open source/open weight models are a key part of the AI supply chain: Many companies will use them. If the U.S. continues to stymie open source, China will come to dominate this part of the supply chain and many businesses will end up using models that reflect China’s values much more than America’s.