California HSR costs $120B for under 800km vs ~$15B in China: rebutting distillation claims
Mr__Ver · x · 2026-10-19
X user @MrVer pushed back on @kuza55's claim that Chinese AI labs likely distill frontier models, citing California's high-speed rail: under 800km costing over $120B vs roughly $15B for equivalent projects in China. The point: the same spending buys different efficiency in different countries, so spend gaps alone don't prove distillation — evidence does. @kuza55 had argued frontier companies' much higher spend buying only a little time makes distillation a credible explanation.
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