The Chinese state wants the world using their models.

People think that Chinese AI labs are just super cool bros that love sharing for free.

The don't understand it's just a state sponsored venture meant to further entrench China in global supply and logistics. China's VCs are Chinese banks and a sprinkle of "private" money. Private in quotes because technically it still belongs to the state anyway.

China doesn't have companies and government like the US. It just has government, and a thin veil of "company" that readily fool westerners.

▲

devilsdata 13 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

I'm Aussie. Please explain to me; why should I care whether Chinese SOEs or the US tech companies are winning? Neither have my best interests at heart.

▲

subw00f 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

As opposed to the US, which just has companies and a thin veil of “government”.

	▲	culi 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Also many of these Chinese companies aren't just opening their weights. They are open sourcing their code AND publishing detailed research papers alongside them to reveal how they accomplished what they accomplished. That's very different from an American SaaS model which relies of free but proprietary software for early growth

▲

zozbot234 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I'm not sure how local AI models are meant to "entrench China in global supply and logistics". The two areas have nothing to do with one another. You can easily run a Chinese open model on all-American hardware.

▲

WarmWash 6 hours ago | parent [-]

They are building a pipeline, and the goal is to get people in the door.

If you forever stand at the entrance eating the free samples, that's fine, they don't care. Other people are going through the door and you are still consuming what they feed you. Doesn't mean it's going to be bad or evil, but they are staking their territory of control.

	▲	zozbot234 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Oh for sure, they're getting a whole lot of Chinese people and other non-Westerners through the door already - mostly, the people who are being ignored or even blocked outright by the big Western labs. That's territory we purposely abandoned, and they're going to control it by default.

▲

jillesvangurp 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Like with nuclear technology, it's not healthy for only one country to dominate AI. The cat is already out of the bag and many countries now have the ability to train and run models. Silicon Valley has bootstrapped this space. But it should be noted that they are using AI talent from all over the world and it was sort of inevitable that this technology would get around. Lots of Chinese, Indian, Russian, and Europeans are involved.

As for what comes next, it's probably going to be a bit of a race for who can do the most useful and valuable things the cheapest. If OpenAI and Anthropic don't make it, the technology will survive them. If they do, they'll be competing on quality and cost.

As for state sponsorship, a lot of things are state sponsored. Including in the US. Silicon Valley has a rich history that is rooted in massive government funding programs. There's a great documentary out there the secret history of Silicon Valley on this. Not to mention all the "cheap" gas that is currently powering data centers of course comes on the back of a long history of public funding being channeled into the oil and gas industry.

	▲	WarmWash 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		>As for state sponsorship, a lot of things are state sponsored. You can make any comparison you want if you use adjectives rather than values. I can say that cars use a massive amount of water (all those radiators!) to try and downplay agricultural water usage. But its blatantly disingenuous. SV is overwhelmingly private (actual constitutional private) money. To the point that you should disregard people saying otherwise, just like you would the people saying cars use massive amounts of water.

▲

OtomotO 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

So an OPEN model that I can run on my own fucking hardware will entrench China in global supply and logistics how?

Contrary: How will the closed, proprietary models from Anthropic, "Open"AI and Co. lead us all to freedom? Freedom of what exactly? Freedom of my money?

At some point this "anti-communism" bullshit propaganda has to stop. And that moment was decades ago!

	▲	Zetaphor 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Anything that isn't explicitly to the benefit of US interests must be against them /s

▲

grttsww 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

So what?

I still prefer that over US total dominance.

Let them fight it out.

▲

joquarky 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Yeah, a lot of people are still living within the paradigm of tribalism: my team good, other team bad.

But the events of the past decade or so have clearly demonstrated that there are no "good" actors.

I personally couldn't care less who wins in the China vs US AI competition, both sides have a long list of pros and cons.

▲

spwa4 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I'd get a bit informed about what exactly Chinese dominance entails. Ask a few Uyghurs, Cantonese Hong Kongers, or even Tibetans.

Then decide ...

▲

joquarky 5 hours ago | parent [-]

Ask a few Native Americans about dominance.

Or maybe families of African descent.

Or maybe families of Japanese Americans who lived in the US during WWII.

Or maybe people of Latin descent living in the US today.

▲

jazz9k 5 hours ago | parent [-]

The US examples you just gave happened decades (and in some cases hundreds) of years ago. The difference is that it's happening in China right now, and nobody cares.

You really don't see the difference?

	▲	well_ackshually 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The US is the biggest threat to the world right now, and is actively supporting a genocide in Palestine as well as war crimes in Lebanon. I'm perfectly happy to let the chinese get a piece of the pie and fight the US, no matter how bad they are right now.

▲

darkwater 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Well, isn't this what the US and really any other power in the world has always done, since forever?