Y Combinator’s Garry Tan wants US open-weight AI labs to ‘distill’ frontier models, too

Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan says smaller US open-weight AI labs should apply distillation techniques to models from American frontier labs. He argues this would expand the country’s open-weight AI options and reduce reliance on Chinese alternatives.

Tan’s comments reflect growing concern that open-weight AI leadership could shift toward China if US labs do not support a broader ecosystem. More domestic open-weight models could help startups, researchers, and enterprises build competitive AI products without depending solely on closed frontier systems.