Y Combinator’s Garry Tan wants U.S. open-weight AI labs to ‘distill’ frontier models, too - techcrunch.com

Garry Tan, the chief executive of Y Combinator, told TechCrunch that he wants U.S. open-weight AI labs to use distillation techniques on American frontier models. The report presents the comments as Tan's stated position, and the excerpt does not indicate that any lab, agency, or programme has adopted the proposal.

Tan also said government could play a role in normalizing access to intelligence trained on public data, according to the excerpt. The article does not name any specific open-weight lab, frontier model, agency, or official, and it includes no figures, dates, dollar amounts, or licensing terms. It does not state whether any American frontier lab has agreed to have its models distilled, nor whether any government body has been approached about normalizing access to intelligence trained on public data.

TechCrunch reports the remarks from Tan, who leads Y Combinator. The stated goal in the article is more American open-weight options, described in contrast to Chinese ones. The excerpt does not describe which distillation techniques would be used, which models would be involved, or what form government involvement in normalizing access might take. It also does not say when, or whether, the proposal would move beyond a stated preference.