https://www.live-feeds.com/feed/y-combinator-s-garry-tan-wants-us-open-weight-ai-labs-to-distill-frontier-models-tooContinuously updated, source-cited coverage. https://www.live-feeds.com/feed/y-combinator-s-garry-tan-wants-us-open-weight-ai-labs-to-distill-frontier-models-toohttps://www.live-feeds.com/feed/y-combinator-s-garry-tan-wants-us-open-weight-ai-labs-to-distill-frontier-models-too#u70411Wed, 16 Sep 2026 12:40:46 +0000Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan argues that regulators should not intervene in AI model distillation. Tan believes US open-weight AI labs must use this practice to stay competitive and suggests the US government avoid stopping it. This position contrasts with warnings from the NSA and accusations from AI labs like Anthropic, which claim Chinese firms such as Alibaba, DeepSeek, and Moonshot AI use distillation to copy US frontier models. China denies these allegations of industrial-scale AI theft.Why it mattersDistillation involves extensively prompting one model to train another. This technique all https://www.live-feeds.com/feed/y-combinator-s-garry-tan-wants-us-open-weight-ai-labs-to-distill-frontier-models-toohttps://www.live-feeds.com/feed/y-combinator-s-garry-tan-wants-us-open-weight-ai-labs-to-distill-frontier-models-too#u67989Mon, 14 Sep 2026 17:16:06 +0000The US government and AI labs including Anthropic accuse Chinese firms of aggressively copying US frontier models through distillation. Anthropic claims Moonshot AI, DeepSeek, and Alibaba conducted distillation campaigns, alleging Moonshot and DeepSeek secretly diverted user requests to Claude. The NSA has issued warnings regarding these practices. Amid these accusations, Y Combinator's Garry Tan argues that US open-weight AI labs should also utilize distillation to remain competitive, suggesting the US do nothing to stop the practice. China has denied the claims of industrial-scale AI th