[DrScientist]

The letter misses out the key issue here.

Should the worlds public knowledge be enclosed by a few powerful private companies or should it be available to all?

The original vision for the web was a decentralized, open information sharing space designed to empower humanity. In my view the effort to privatise that via LLM distillation is the antithesis of that vision.

https://medium.com/@timberners_lee/marking-the-webs-35th-bir...

In terms of the risks mentioned in the letter - I agree with the risk of AI enabling a powerful surveillance state - however I don't see that as a solely Chinese problem.

The other risk mentioned - that knowledge can be dangerous - sure - but ultimately here, as there are so many low tech ways to cause mayhem, the ultimate protection is to have a society where people don't want to do it.

And perhaps more importantly I'd note that the primary tool to justify a powerful surveillance state is the fear of terrorism ( and others ).