Moonshot curbs hacking ability in new Kimi model as fears grow over AI-powered cyberattacks

It removed cyber-related data from training, while retaining general coding skills in its AI model

Moonshot ​AI has reduced the cyber-offensive capabilities of its newest model, the Chinese startup said ‌on Saturday, as fears grow that increasingly autonomous AI could turbocharge hacking.

Beijing-based Moonshot announced the curbs while introducing Kimi K3.1 Pro, which it describes as its most capable 3-trillion-parameter-class open-weight model. The company plans to publish the model's ​weights — files allowing outside developers to run and modify it on their own systems — by ​November 4.

Moonshot said it removed cyber-related data from the training corpus and reinforcement-learning environments ⁠used to develop the model, while retaining general coding skills.

"We aim not to release open weights ​that would extend the absolute frontier of cyber capability," the company said.

Governments, technology companies and security researchers ​are growing increasingly concerned that AI could make sophisticated hacking easier and cheaper. Models that can write code, operate software tools and complete long, multi-step tasks may help users identify weaknesses in programs and automate parts of cyberattacks.

China proposed ​export controls last week that would ban exports of AI-driven malware-generation and mutation technology and restrict AI-assisted ​vulnerability-discovery tools. The draft measures, which remain open for public comment, cite the risk that such capabilities could be ‌used ⁠against critical infrastructure, defence-industrial and core government systems, or to bypass security protections.

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Moonshot said open-weight models can improve security by helping more organisations inspect and secure their own software, including older systems that receive little attention.

Unlike proprietary, closed-weight AI systems, however, open-weight releases make central oversight more difficult. Once the files ​are widely distributed, the ​original developer has less ⁠ability to restrict access, monitor use or update safeguards than with a hosted service.

K3.1 Pro scored 81.0% on its internal cyber benchmark, compared with 90.5% ​for a similar version without the risk-reduction measures, the company said. The ​test involved finding ⁠and exploiting software vulnerabilities in a controlled environment. Moonshot said the comparison showed that filtering cyber-related data reduced the model's offensive cyber performance, although it still outperformed its predecessor. The results have not been independently verified.

K3.1 ⁠Pro has ​a 1-million-token context window, allowing it to process very large ​amounts of text at once. Moonshot also released a faster version, K3.1 Pro Highspeed, which it said runs at two to ​three times the speed of the standard model.