It's All China AI All The Time

Tech Brew Ride Home

Amalgamated Internets, LLC

Technology, Tech News, News

4.7 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 20 July 2026

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS

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Summary

Alibaba launched Qwen3.8 Max as Moonshot paused Kimi K3 signups amid demand. The Trump administration weighed a slow squeeze on Chinese AI, Hugging Face used China's GLM-5.2 after US guardrails blocked its breach forensics, and Google built a Gemini chip. Alibaba launches a 2.4T parameter Qwen3.8 Max preview that it says rivals frontier AI models and is second only to Fable 5, plans to make it "open-weight soon" (Bloomberg) The Trump administration has reportedly explored sanctions, security warnings, and executive-order requirements since 2025 to build a slow, durable squeeze on Chinese AI models instead of pursuing an outright ban (The Decoder) Ben Thompson argues the market reaction to Kimi and other Chinese models is overblown, since it's compute scarcity — not a real Chinese cost advantage — that's keeping frontier-model prices high (Stratechery) Hugging Face says it used the open-weight GLM-5.2 hosted on its own compute for breach forensics, after US frontier model safety guardrails blocked the requests (The Stack) Sources: Google is developing a specialized server chip, informally dubbed "Frozen v2", that integrates its Gemini AI model blueprint into the silicon, for 2028 (The Information) Subscribe to the ad-free feed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	So what if the drink's pink and the cream's pink?
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0:17.6	Frappé is not available on delivery. Subject to availability.
0:24.2	Welcome to the TechBoo ride home from Monday, July 20th, 20th,
0:26.8	2026. I'm Brian McCullough today. Alibaba launched Quinn 3.5 max as moonshot, pause Kimmy K3,
0:33.1	signups amid demand. The Trump administration weighed a slow squeeze on Chinese AI. Hugging Face used
0:39.2	China's GLM 5.2 after U.S. Guard Rails blocked its breach forensics, and Google is building a chip
0:45.1	with Gemini baked in. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech.
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1:28.7	their index funds, and those funds own shares of the companies they invest in, Vanguard Marketing
1:33.5	Corporation distributor. There was another one over the weekend. Alibaba launched a 2.4 trillion
1:42.7	parameter model called Quinn 3.8 Max into preview that it says
1:47.5	rivals frontier AI models and is second only to Fable 5 on various benchmarks. Meanwhile,
	...

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