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A comment on Qwen3.8 is launching and going open-weight soon. Parent comment

Re:Qwen3.8 is launching and going open-weight soon by yeodev on Sunday July 19, 2026 @11:32AM (#48969058)
Same, you can think of China whatever you want but they're really good at giving big tech a reality check when it comes to AI. We now got a pretty wide range of open-weight models (from DeepSeek and MiMo over to Kimi K3, Qwen 3.8 & GLM-5.2) and I think it's most important that there's a variance not only between quality / intelligence and also cost.

I mean even the cheapest option for Luna is still more expensive than anything DS or MiMo is offering right now and I think a new Ministral model would also hit hard there because we also need some variance in model sources, we can't rely only on the US and China.

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Re:Qwen3.8 is launching and going open-weight soon by glimshe on Sunday July 19, 2026 @11:39AM (#48969119)
"China" isn't giving anything. These are Chinese companies leveraging their best competitive strategy at the moment: competing on price.
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Re:Qwen3.8 is launching and going open-weight soon by derektank on Sunday July 19, 2026 @12:02PM (#48969292)
Those Chinese companies are being funded by a substantial amount of government financing, I think at least 20% has come directly from state owned investment firms or government entities and probably more now. You obviously lose precision when you’re talking in sweeping terms like “China” but I don’t think it’s entirely unreasonable in this case. The Chinese government is playing a much more direct role in AI investment and research than other nations.
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Re:Qwen3.8 is launching and going open-weight soon by glimshe on Sunday July 19, 2026 @12:40PM (#48969597)
Nonetheless, the government isn't giving it away either. If China had a monopoly on the technology, or simply winning in quality, open weight models would never have seen the light of the day.

I just want to dispell the silly notion of altruism from China in this conversation.

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Re:Qwen3.8 is launching and going open-weight soon by rikima_ on Sunday July 19, 2026 @09:47PM (#48973535)
Bad chyna
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Re:Qwen3.8 is launching and going open-weight soon by satvikpendem on Sunday July 19, 2026 @03:47PM (#48971155)
The Chinese government is explicitly calling for open weight AI models, which influence its companies.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48970449

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