Claim◆Article

The real reason to be afraid of Chinese models is cybersecurity: U.S. restrictions bar defenders from using Fable/Sol for cybersecurity, pushing them toward Chinese models instead — the U.S. should loosen those restrictions and put U.S. open weight makers on equal footing with China.

Citing Hugging Face's use of a Chinese open model to respond to a breach because U.S. frontier models were restricted for cybersecurity use, Thompson argues this policy is dangerously self-defeating and U.S. restrictions should be loosened. ✦ AI generated

Ben Thompson · Stratechery · 2026-07-20 · original ↗

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Right now defenders are effectively banned from using Fable or Sol for cybersecurity because of Trump administration directives; that means the best alternative is using models from a country which has been trying to weaken our cyber defenses for years. This is insane! The better course is clear: first, loosen Fable and Sol restrictions on cybersecurity, and second, ensure that U.S. open weight model makers are on an equal playing field with China.

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▦ Hugging Face ✳ Trump administration

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