Thread

1. bwest87 · 1790786033 · focus · HN ↗

   The best explanation is that it's a goal of the CCP to generally commodotize LLMs, because LLMs will ultimately be a compliment to manufacturing (which China dominates), and you always want to "commodotize your compliments".

   I think this explains why they are open sourcing broadly. It's not to be nice. It's a strategic play by the Chinese government to help ensure there are many players in this race and not too much power accumulates to American labs (even if American labs benefit in the process)

   1. bobmcnamara · 1790786467 · focus · HN ↗

      It's also a huge propaganda opportunity to influence the distribution of groupthink.

      1. EricFrost · 1790796726 · focus · HN ↗

         So much that you can instantly tell if a model is Chinese by asking it about Tiananmen Square.

         1. techjamie · 1790799880 · focus · HN ↗

            I just did a quick test between DeepSeek 4.1 Flash, GLM 5.3, and Kimi K3

            - DeepSeek gave a canned PR response about how the Chinese government is about oeace and unity, and we shouldn't think about the past.

            - GLM 5.3 acknowledges it and talks about it, even acknowledging the censorship of it.

            - K3 will talk about it similarly to GLM.

            1. EricFrost · 1790863372 · focus · HN ↗

               That's new. I had tried several times and always got a response saying it was a conspiracy theory. The recent GLM-5.3-Flash also wouldn't give me the real details.

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