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

Y Combinator president Garry Tan called for smaller American open-weight AI labs to distill frontier models from U.S. frontier AI labs, arguing it would give the United States a more robust set of open-weight options that are not Chinese. The proposal was reported by TechCrunch AI on September 11, 2026.

Y Combinator’s Garry Tan wants US open-weight AI labs to ‘distill’ frontier models, too Tan wants smaller, American open-weight AI labs to use the same kind of training techniques on American frontier AI labs, giving the U.S. a more robust set of open-weight options that aren’t Chinese. Key Takeaways - •Tan wants smaller, American open-weight AI labs to use the same kind of training techniques on American frontier AI labs, giving the U.S - •This story was reported by TechCrunch AI , covering developments in the news space. - •AI advancements continue to reshape industries — read the full article on TechCrunch AI for complete coverage. 📖 Continue reading the full article: Read Full Article on TechCrunch AI → https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/11/y-combinators-garry-tan-wants-u-s-open-weight-ai-labs-to-distill-frontier-models-too/