how are some labs catching up so fast with way less compute?

The rapid progress of some AI labs with less computational power raises questions about the effectiveness of chip restrictions, which were intended to limit frontier AI development by controlling access to massive compute. It is speculated that high-quality training data, rather than raw computational power, might be a more significant factor in AI advancement. Concerns have been raised that US data labs, such as SurgeAI, are selling large quantities of expert training data to China, potentially undermining the US's position in the AI race despite existing chip restrictions.

This report uniquely highlights how US data labs like SurgeAI might be undermining chip restrictions by selling expert training data to China, unlike previous discussions focused solely on hardware.