Chinese AI 'Kimi K3' Sparks Frenzy; New Subscriptions Halted Due to Surge in Users

[Anchor]

The artificial intelligence model Kimi K3, released by China last weekend, has created a global sensation. Some have even evaluated it as being on par with top-tier models from the United States. However, just 48 hours after its release, the service began experiencing delays in responses due to a surge in users, and new subscriptions have been halted.

Beijing correspondent Han Sang-woo reports.

[Reporter]

It learns 3D video to create games that explore virtual worlds through its own coding capabilities, and it even generates immersive 3D fighting games.

This is Kimi K3, unveiled by Chinese startup Moonshot AI on July 17.

Moonshot AI describes it as an intelligent agent AI that learns on its own and produces results to achieve goals set by the user, rather than simply functioning as a question-and-answer tool.

The company emphasized that its parameter count—the total amount of knowledge it can store, which serves as a metric for evaluating AI model performance—is 2.8 trillion, the largest in the world.

While it still trails behind U.S. AI models such as Claude Fable 5 and GPT 5.6 in terms of overall capabilities like reasoning and data quality, it was ranked first in performance evaluations for development tasks.

[Chinese AI Model User: While it may seem like China has relatively fewer companies in this field, I believe it remains very powerful when it comes to AI applications.]

Amid U.S. technological restrictions, the emergence of a world-class AI model from China has been described as a second DeepSeek shock.

Reports have also emerged that the U.S. administration is considering measures to block U.S. companies from using Kimi K3.

However, as of early yesterday (July 20), 48 hours after its release, access to the service became restricted.

When attempting to check the performance of Kimi K3 today, the system stated there were too many users, failing to answer questions. While it suggests that users can access the service by purchasing a paid subscription, the subscription menu displays "Sold Out," and no further progress can be made.

The company has halted new subscriptions for Kimi K3 due to server limitations caused by the influx of users.

The company stated that it would resume subscriptions in phases but has not provided a clear timeline.

(Video Editing: Choi Deok-hyun, Video Editing: Kim Byeong-jik, Design: Choi Ha-neul)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.