Y Combinator's Garry Tan Urges Doing Nothing on AI Distillation as 149 Demo Day Startups Pitch AI
Updated
Updated · CNBC · Sep 11
Y Combinator's Garry Tan Urges Doing Nothing on AI Distillation as 149 Demo Day Startups Pitch AI
1 articles · Updated · CNBC · Sep 11
Summary
Garry Tan said regulators should "do nothing" about AI model distillation, arguing the better policy goal is a workable balance between open-weight models and frontier systems that can still command a price premium.
That stance cuts against pressure from OpenAI, Anthropic and U.S. security agencies after accusations that Chinese firms including DeepSeek, Moonshot AI and MiniMax copied leading models through distillation.
Tan tied the dispute to broader legal and ethical questions around training data, noting critics say frontier-model companies also rely on copyrighted material now being challenged in U.S. courts.
On AI risk, Tan pushed a near-term focus on cybersecurity and misuse rather than existential fears, even as Anthropic said it blocked 5 cases involving suspected pathogen research.
Y Combinator is still leaning heavily into the sector: 149 of 196 startups at its Demo Day were categorized as machine-learning and AI companies.