# Y Combinator's Garry Tan urges US open-weight labs to distill frontier models

_Friday, September 11, 2026 at 4:59 PM EDT · AI, Capital · Latest · Tier 2 — Notable_

![Y Combinator's Garry Tan urges US open-weight labs to distill frontier models — Primary](https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/garry-tan-sxsw-getty.jpg?resize=1200,801)

Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan said US regulators should not act against distillation of frontier AI models, and that American open-weight labs should be free to use the same training techniques on domestic frontier models.

In an interview with CNBC earlier this week, Tan said "I would do nothing" and argued there should be an American distillation regime. He told TechCrunch he wants smaller US open-weight labs to distill American frontier models so the country has more non-Chinese open-weight options.

Tan said he does not advocate using stolen credentials, and framed restrictions on API use as overreach. Anthropic this week released a second report alleging Chinese labs conduct illicit distillation attacks.

## Sources

- [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/11/y-combinators-garry-tan-wants-u-s-open-weight-ai-labs-to-distill-frontier-models-too/)

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Retrieved: 2026-09-12T02:50:19.451Z
Publisher: Tech & Business (techandbusiness.org)