DeepSeek just open-sourced its inference engine

Re:DeepSeek just open-sourced its inference engine by stri8ted on Tuesday October 20, 2026 @12:39PM (#50169045)

Its not about bad/good. It's about self-serving interests. Currently, it serves China's interests to open source the models. If they had capabilities beyond those available in the US, I expect that would no longer be the case. Especially given the military/cyber implications. You don't expect them to open source their J-35 blueprints, so why would they behave differently here?

The reason this matters is, if along the way, they destroy all economic incentives for US labs, you may find yourself in a world, where you have no alternatives to closed Chinese models.

Look no further than what happened to mineral processing. Notice they are not open sourcing their mineral processing and magnet-manufacturing technologies.

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Re:DeepSeek just open-sourced its inference engine by geraneum on Tuesday October 20, 2026 @01:43PM (#50169966)

You seem to be under the impression that somehow only US has the capability to advance this tech. Aren’t these AI mega corporations constantly trying to scare us that if they stop pushing AI, China will get ahead? Which narrative should we believe?

> if along the way, they destroy all economic incentives for US labs

Nah, they should be able to compete! To be honest, I find it hard to sympathize with trillion dollar ungodly rich corps.

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Re:DeepSeek just open-sourced its inference engine by stri8ted on Tuesday October 20, 2026 @02:26PM (#50170551)

> You seem to be under the impression that somehow only US has the capability to advance this tech.

I did not say this, nor do I believe it.

> Aren’t these AI mega corporations constantly trying to scare us that if they stop pushing AI, China will get ahead? Which narrative should we believe?

Correct. If US paused, it will not be long before China exceeds US capabilities. I don't understand your question.

> Nah, they should be able to compete! To be honest, I find it hard to sympathize with trillion dollar ungodly rich corps.

You can't compete with free. No-one is asking for sympathy. I'm merely pointing out, people should not delude themselves that China is doing this for the goodness of mankind, and it will continue indefinitely.

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Re:DeepSeek just open-sourced its inference engine by InvertedRhodium on Tuesday October 20, 2026 @04:23PM (#50172132)

Do you have an example of something that a nation did solely for the good of mankind with no vested interest in the outcome?

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Re:DeepSeek just open-sourced its inference engine by geraneum on Thursday October 22, 2026 @09:27PM (#50203423)

> I did not say this, nor do I believe it

“ If they had capabilities beyond those available in the US…”

People shouldn’t delude themselves that there’s any material difference between closed source US vs closed source China. All of your arguments apply to US equally and between these two China is the one for being open right now.

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Re:DeepSeek just open-sourced its inference engine by spencerflem on Tuesday October 20, 2026 @01:09PM (#50169495)

I find it hard to imagine that it would be possible to be less ethical than the US labs.

This fear mongering doesn’t scare me

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Re:DeepSeek just open-sourced its inference engine by redanddead on Tuesday October 20, 2026 @04:30PM (#50172222)

You could say that about anything

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