> So the Chinese labs have thrown a lifeline to the Western loss-making labs, and I just have no clue as to why.
"Thus the expert in battle moves the enemy, and is not moved by him."
They figured out a clever method for avoiding excessive training costs via distillation. That forces the hand of frontier labs to move faster, produce better models, etc. (to avoid embarrassment and 'falling behind'—all the while shouldering most of the cost), which they can just keep distilling—or applying other techniques against—much to the dismay of said frontier labs.
rglover · · focus · HN ↗
"Thus the expert in battle moves the enemy, and is not moved by him."
They figured out a clever method for avoiding excessive training costs via distillation. That forces the hand of frontier labs to move faster, produce better models, etc. (to avoid embarrassment and 'falling behind'—all the while shouldering most of the cost), which they can just keep distilling—or applying other techniques against—much to the dismay of said frontier labs.
Checkmate.