Ramez Naam Questions View That China Only Copies US AI Advances
Reactions from ranked influencers
2 posts
Elon stated publicly that Grok distilled Claude. Yet this is seldom brought up, relative to how often Chinese distillation is. Some really want to believe that China only makes AI progress by 'stealing' US advances. I wouldn't be so sure of that. China has demonstrated in sector after sector that they can come from behind, innovate, and take the lead. Solar, EVs, batteries, nuclear, robots, and biotech and pharma (in process). People aren't asking: What if one day, Chinese models are at the frontier, and the US is the fast follower? That is in no way guaranteed. But it's one possible future.
Correction: Elon stated under oath that Grok distilled from ChatGPT. It's what widely reported that they distilled from Claude. So probably both.
Elon stated publicly that Grok distilled Claude. Yet this is seldom brought up, relative to how often Chinese distillation is. Some really want to believe that China only makes AI progress by 'stealing' US advances. I wouldn't be so sure of that. China has demonstrated in sector after sector that they can come from behind, innovate, and take the lead. Solar, EVs, batteries, nuclear, robots, and biotech and pharma (in process). People aren't asking: What if one day, Chinese models are at the frontier, and the US is the fast follower? That is in no way guaranteed. But it's one possible future.