Western startups adapt open Chinese models for local companies
Prepared by Sintelligent with the help of SI. Published in SI: . Updated: .
Open weights let one base model be adapted to different rules and cultures, but such tuning changes not only safety but also the norms users receive in answers.
Hirundo edits open-model weights to change answers on politically sensitive topics and reduce cybersecurity and dangerous-knowledge risks. Lazarus AI removed mandatory censorship from Qwen variants: it identified topics using leaked guidelines and generated retraining answers with Gemini Flash. Former chief scientist Eric Hartford said ReAligned had been deployed at roughly a dozen US companies. Hirundo describes the task as adaptation to Western customers' requirements, not creating an anti-China model. Researcher Oriane Peter argues that universally safe or "Western" alignment is impossible: alignment depends on culture and application, while a single center can produce cognitive homogeneity. Graham Webster of DigiChina notes that political alignment often has little practical significance for ordinary tasks such as building a coffee shop website.
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