The gap between open weights LLMs and closed source LLMs

Re:The gap between open weights LLMs and closed source LLMs by linzhangrun on Friday June 26, 2026 @10:27PM (#48694567)

USA, a country that known for the land of freedom, is now restricting frontier models to the point where non-Americans cannot even use them.

China, a "authoritarian state" country, "the antonym of freedom", with a software industry that is especially capitalist, has produced all the competitive open-weight models.

It really is IRONIC.

Disclosure: I am Chinese, and I understand this strategy comes from being behind, using open source as an asymmetric way to compete and make up for missing compute by sharing the burden, etc. But still, very ironically.

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Re:The gap between open weights LLMs and closed source LLMs by mft_ on Saturday June 27, 2026 @04:53AM (#48696427)

Your comparison falls apart in the first few words:

> USA, a country that known for the land of freedom

The US might say it's the land of freedom, but it's been playing the game of economic protectionism for centuries. This is just the latest example.

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Re:The gap between open weights LLMs and closed source LLMs by sinatra on Sunday June 28, 2026 @12:19AM (#48704302)

> it's been playing the game of economic protectionism for centuries.

Equal to or more than other major countries? If so, can you show me anything supporting your claim?

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Re:The gap between open weights LLMs and closed source LLMs by mft_ on Sunday June 28, 2026 @09:50AM (#48707256)

I wasn't making a comparison or a value judgement. We're obviously both aware that other countries (and blocs, like the EU) also play the same game.

Rather, I was simply noting that the US' "freedom" branding that the poster was referring to doesn't necessarily apply in the way they were assuming (their point was that the "free" US restricting models more than "authoritarian" China was ironic) given the US' history of economic protectionism.

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