Experts say exploiting Anthropic's Fable isn't how Kimi K3 got so good

White House science advisor Michael Kratsios alleges that Chinese company Moonshot copied Anthropic’s Fable LLM to build its Kimi K3 model, using unauthorized chips. However, experts are skeptical, arguing that distillation alone is unlikely to produce such a strong model so quickly after Fable’s release. They suggest more advanced techniques, possibly involving restricted chips obtained through illicit channels, might be involved, though the exact methods remain unclear.

• White House science advisor Michael Kratsios accused Chinese company Moonshot of copying Anthropic’s Fable LLM to build its Kimi K3 model.
• Kratsios also alleged Moonshot used chips that are banned for export to China.
• Experts question the feasibility of achieving Kimi K3’s capabilities solely through distillation of Fable in such a short timeframe.
• The article suggests that more advanced AI training techniques, like reinforcement learning, may have been used.
• Concerns are also raised about the potential illicit acquisition of advanced Nvidia chips by Chinese companies.
• The practice of distillation is common in the AI industry, with Elon Musk having testified that his company used it.
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