Prof G Markets China’s AI Is 20x Cheaper — And Catching Up
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Feb 19, 2026 
Robin Brooks, a former Goldman Sachs FX strategist now at Brookings, and Alice Han, China AI commentator and China Decode co-host. They explore Chinese AI launches and why models are 10–20x cheaper and locally downloadable. They discuss cost-driven adoption, niche uses like toys and hardware, Sweden’s euro debate and its currency implications, and the Pentagon’s clash with Anthropic over AI use.
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Fine-Tune Locally To Cut Costs And Protect Data
- Download and fine-tune local Chinese models when privacy, cost, and customization matter.
- Engineers and corporates can experiment cheaply to build agentic or domain-specific solutions.
Leaderboards Can Be Red Herrings
- Benchmarks can be misleading because models target different unquantified goals like reasoning precision.
- Alice Han warns that top leaderboard placement doesn't always mean superior real-world performance.
Enterprise Captures Precision Value
- OpenAI and Anthropic may capture enterprise value because customers pay for precision and stickiness.
- Alice Han expects both Western and Chinese models to coexist in different market segments.