Why China is giving away its tech for free
Interesting Economist article detailing how China's tech scene has discovered the "outcompete via openness" strategy using open source:
AI has lately given China’s open-source movement a further boost. Chinese companies, and the government, see open models as the quickest way to narrow the gap with America. DeepSeek’s models have generated the most interest, but Qwen, developed by Alibaba, is also highly rated, and Baidu has said it will soon open up the model behind its Ernie chatbot.
China’s enthusiasm for open technology is also extending to hardware. Unitree, a robotics startup based in Hangzhou, has made its training data, algorithms and hardware designs available for free, which may help it to shape global standards. Semiconductors offer another illustration. China is dependent on designs from Western chip firms. As part of its push for self-sufficiency, the government is urging firms to adopt RISC-V, an open chip architecture developed at the University of California, Berkeley.
Many Chinese firms also hope that more transparent technology will help them win acceptance for their products abroad.
(via Nelson)
Tags: via:nelson open-source china free deepseek qwen alibaba unitree transparency