Chinese models are open-source for purposes of inference: you know exactly what the model architecture is and the code to run it is released under an open source license. The “binary blob” is a useful artifact that has many techniques available to use in the creation of future binary blobs. And it is fixed and reliable.

Contrast this with crap like Claude, where you have no idea how many/what size/shape models you are interacting with. They can silently inject outputs from other systems, apply steering vectors to sabotage a particular user’s work, etc.

I agree that 100% free-range organic open source models are lovely, but they also are unlikely ever to attain parity with the frontier because the training data sources are open and expose them to legal liability that closed model providers can thwart.