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I never thought the chinese were giving away valuable technology out of kindness. I thought having them be free and open weight was part of a strategic move to undermine US tech dominance. I suppose if that was the case something has changed or maybe they simply didn't care until recently
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They won't? They're profiting from every subscription to AI providers, because all companies are state-owned.

They're also well-positioned to control how groundbreaking US AI companies are allowed to appear to their investors, by offering open models that match what market leaders claim can only be attained with trillion-level spend. That's a strong control on US economy, considering how few stocks are propping up the US stock market, and how these stocks are all dependent on the same beliefs and factors.

Also, regarding China's tech investment in general, the five-year plan is just... available to read. It's not a secret. It explains the strategy, and you can draw a direct line from the plan to their now abundant solar infrastructures and tech achievements, including in AI, which is specifically named.

https://cset.georgetown.edu/publication/china-14th-five-year...

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China's five year plan is whatever Xi wants whenever he wants it. It's just a formal guideline, not a law or constitution people can sue the CCP over.

Also, even if China decides it doesn't want to keep the crown jewels of productivity close to home, the US will ban their import. Maybe XzeRo_337 will be torrenting weights and have a VPN to access foreign providers, but Timmy and Ashley are just going to pay for their ChatGPT subs, and Mega corp will pay their Claude Legend token expenses.

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You're applying US cultural logic to Chinese bureaucracy
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China is an authoritarian state with a single leader who has unilateral uncontested control for life.

China has no real bureaucracy (or any other structure for that matter) because at the end of the day, it's one guy who can do whatever he wants whenever he wants. For commoners and officials there is this faux bureaucracy, but for the elite at the top making decisions, there is zero.

If Xi doesn't want models exported, he's not having a legal delegation go to the supreme court of China to fight for his ruling. It just happens, regardless of whatever anyone else or any piece of paper in the country says, and there is zero recourse anyone who doesn't like it can pursue.

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More or less authoritarian than Imperial dynasties? Zhao Gao for Qin, Huang Hao for Shu Han, Yang Fugong for Tang, this list can just keep going.

The Ten Eunuchs, if you want one example. Which is to say, their bureaucracies have always worked with single leaders who ostensibly had unilateral uncontested control for life. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Attendants

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> If Xi doesn't want models exported, he's not having a legal delegation go to the supreme court of China to fight for his ruling.

"Sorry you can only ship fable to American citizens"

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