With the performance gains they're claiming, I wonder if they implemented the Casual Encoder-Decoder technology from DeepSeek 4.1's paper.
I could see them accomplishing it and seeing gains like this in roughly the correct timeframe, and when I heard about that development I assumed the frontiers would probably jump on it.
How it works: <a href="https://miraflow.ai/blog/deepseek-v4-1-flash-causal-encoder-decoder-explained-2026" rel="nofollow">https://miraflow.ai/blog/deepseek-v4-1-flash-causal-encoder-...
Doesn't mean they didn't apply something similar. They could have also come up independently with their own version, the speculation is not they copied it, rather that they have performance breakthroughs which perhaps is a result of work in same domain
I don't think it's particularly relevant?
They might be using something like this, or they might be using some other "increased sparsity" techniques, of which there are a great many. They also might be optimizing for something else - like less RAM use for KV cache.
Alternatively, they might be cutting into their margins and dropping the price because of stiffer competition from Astra. I do think that's unlikely though.
Unless they already have something similar of their own, which is always possible, they'd be stupid not to. I don't suppose we'll ever know, though. It would not be a good look if after the trillions of dollars that have been thrown at US labs, investors found out that they're down to copying Chinese tech.
techjamie · · focus · HN ↗
I could see them accomplishing it and seeing gains like this in roughly the correct timeframe, and when I heard about that development I assumed the frontiers would probably jump on it.
How it works: <a href="https://miraflow.ai/blog/deepseek-v4-1-flash-causal-encoder-decoder-explained-2026" rel="nofollow">https://miraflow.ai/blog/deepseek-v4-1-flash-causal-encoder-...
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tired: AI startup attempting to build their own website
wired: a nonprofit founded in 1996
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ACCount39 · · focus · HN ↗
They might be using something like this, or they might be using some other "increased sparsity" techniques, of which there are a great many. They also might be optimizing for something else - like less RAM use for KV cache.
Alternatively, they might be cutting into their margins and dropping the price because of stiffer competition from Astra. I do think that's unlikely though.
Balinares · · focus · HN ↗
MisterMunchkin · · focus · HN ↗
cpldcpu · · focus · HN ↗