Vitalik Buterin Backs AI Model That Deliberately Cut Its Hacking Skills

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin backed Moonshot AI’s decision to remove top-end hacking skills from its Kimi K3.1 Pro model, arguing that limiting uses is less harmful than limiting users. The Beijing-based startup said the filtered model solved 81% of tasks on its internal exploit benchmark, compared with 90.5% for an unfiltered version. Moonshot plans to release open weights by November 4, allowing anyone to download and run the model, so it removed cyber-related data from training and reinforcement-learning environments while keeping general coding tasks. Buterin said such limits buy time to harden systems, check legacy code and verify software, and he warned that a damaging first AI-risk wave could bring locked models, identity checks and surveillance.