The reason Chinese companies release LLMs as open source isn’t actually confusing either. It’s not being treated as a product, but rather as foundational technology that things will be built upon. Think of it the same way as the current open source infrastructure that underpins the internet. Most companies aren’t trying to monetize Linux directly, rather they use it to build actual products on top of.
AI is being developed in China in a very different way from the west because the material conditions in China are different. https://dialecticaldispatches.substack.com/p/the-ghost-in-the-machine
The reason Chinese companies release LLMs as open source isn’t actually confusing either. It’s not being treated as a product, but rather as foundational technology that things will be built upon. Think of it the same way as the current open source infrastructure that underpins the internet. Most companies aren’t trying to monetize Linux directly, rather they use it to build actual products on top of.
However, dragging the US into a tech race it can’t win is also a factor whether it’s done intentionally by China or not. https://dialecticaldispatches.substack.com/p/the-ai-race-isnt-about-chips-its