It is incredibly important to whether the US can maintain its AI lead. If foreign competition is closing the gap only by distillation, then the frontier labs can focus on preventing distillation and maintain their lead that way.

US dominance is also important for approaches to safety, especially political approaches. If the frontier models are all US-based, safety might be tackled via internal US policy. If other countries can independently train competitive models, international cooperation is required.

Edit: It is also important for the business model. Companies won't be able to justify tremendous training costs if competitors can replicate their product much more cheaply via distillation.

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titanomachy 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

Do Americans even believe that US policy is likely to steer development in a way that’s safe and beneficial for humanity? The rest of the world certainly doesn’t. The US currently seems to primarily use their superpower status to be the world’s number one shit disturber and geopolitical antagonist.

I don’t think China’s necessarily any better, but I’d rather have the most powerful models be open rather than under the exclusive control of the US executive.

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Gajurgensen 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

I didn't mean to imply that the US is more likely than elsewhere to responsibly steer AI via policy. But I do think it is easier if it can be done internally as opposed to via international dealmaking.

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CuriouslyC 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

China uses its power to make favorable deals and get people hooked on what it's slinging so it has captive customers. The US uses its power to bully and break rules that apply to everyone else for its own benefit. Kind of a big difference.

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thesmtsolver2 3 days ago | parent [-]

Not really. Go ask someone in Tibet/HongKong/Taiwan/Japan/India if China isn't breaking rules and bullying them. If China had US's powers/economy, it would be a much bigger bully.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_warrior_diplomacy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_police_overseas_servic...

	▲	CuriouslyC 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		What China does with places they think are rebellious provinces is one thing. What the US did to Hawaii, Panama and half a dozen other countries when the local population tried to unyolk themselves from brutal US corporate robbery is another. The Chinese are hard driving businesspeople for the most part, the US is a gangster state.

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thewebguyd 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Do Americans even believe that US policy is likely to steer development in a way that’s safe and beneficial for humanity?

No, at least not outside of this forum.

We all mostly think these models and US policy are going to drive the exact opposite of that. Wealth will continue to get extracted and funneled to the top, and the rest of us are going to be left with the scraps and left to die while what little social safety nets we had continue to get eroded away alongside losing our jobs.

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Gallows4574 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

>Do Americans even believe that US policy is likely to steer development in a way that’s safe and beneficial for humanity?

No, no we do not.

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realusername 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

> If foreign competition is closing the gap only by distillation, then the frontier labs can focus on preventing distillation and maintain their lead that way.

We already know it's false because you would have hundreds of competitors if it was that easy.

The reason why these Chinese labs are releasing good models is simpler, they have access to a tremendous pool of talented people.