Economist argues distillation is good for consumers and locks in America's AI lead
kevinsxu · x · 2026-10-30
A new Economist piece argues counterintuitively that model distillation benefits consumers, reduces catastrophe risk, and locks in America's technological lead—claiming Chinese labs like DeepSeek and Moonshot that distilled Astra are sacrificing long-term innovation for short-term gains, making them the biggest losers. Kevin Xu notes he and Nathan Lambert had the same thought months ago, adding that if you care about winning the race, pay attention to labs that don't distill.
Related event: The Economist Argues Against Banning Model Distillation(2 posts)→
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