What Is AI Distillation — And How DeepSeek Used It To Blindside OpenAI

Silicon Valley is now reckoning with a technique in AI development that could upend the leaderboard. Distillation is the idea that a small team with virtually no resources can make an advanced AI model by extracting knowledge from a larger one. While the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek didn’t invent the method, its use of the technique roiled the stock market and woke the AI world up to its disruptive potential. Distillation is now enabling less-capitalized startups and research labs to compete at the cutting edge faster than ever before. DeepSeek’s breakthroughs also ushered in the rise of a new open-source order, based on a belief that transparency and accessibility drive innovation faster than closed-door research. That combination -- distillation’s newfound traction and open-source’s rise in popularity -- is deadly for the competitive edges that the biggest AI players had. This video also includes Bosa’s full interview with Glean CEO Arvind Jain.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
01:03 Chapter 1: Distill and conquer
06:47 Chapter 2: A new open-source era
10:05 Chapter 3: AGI at all costs
12:47 Chapter 4: Glean CEO interview

Anchor: Deirdre Bosa
Produced by: Jasmine Wu, Drew Troast, Laura Batchelor
Edited by: Lisa Setyon
Senior Director: Jeniece Pettitt
Animators: Jason Reginato, Christina Locopo
Editorial Support: Erin Black
Additional Footage: Getty Images

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What Is AI Distillation — And How DeepSeek Used It To Blindside OpenAI

Post from CNBC on February 21, 2025

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