US Companies Are Realizing That Chinese AI Models Are Way Cheaper, Ditch American Ones - Futurism

So the great American AI pivot is upon us. According to the *Financial Times*, DoorDash, Airbnb, and Siemens are ditching their domestic models for cheaper Chinese alternatives from DeepSeek and Z.ai. It's almost as if the 'national security' panic we documented earlier was just a minor hiccup en route to the bottom line. Chinese models have now overtaken US equivalents on OpenRouter, which is a bit like discovering your premium whiskey is being outsold by supermarket own-brand. Turns out the only thing stronger than patriotic fervour is a discount.

One can only imagine the boardroom conversations: 'Yes, yes, they stole our IP and threaten our sovereignty, but have you seen their API pricing? It's half the cost!' The hypocrisy would be laughable if it weren't so predictable. The same companies that nodded along to Anthropic's congressional testimony about Chinese distillation are now happily plugging those distilled models into their logistics pipelines. 'Distillation' is suddenly just another word for 'supply chain optimisation.' Perhaps the next letter to Congress will be from DoorDash, thanking Beijing for their generous subsidies.

And what of the US labs? OpenAI and Meta are slashing prices in a panic, as the LA Times reported, but they're still playing catch-up. The market has spoken: cheaper beats better, and 'made in China' beats 'made with regulatory overhead.' The only thing more depressing than watching the world's most hyped industry become a race to the bottom is knowing that the bottom is still rising. Enjoy your bargain-basement AGI, everyone. I'm sure it'll be fine.