Ok now we know why their alignment team quit.

I got curious. It’s at least partially the government regulation thing. They’ve been working on standards that get inforced soon around data privacy and updates to software. So they can roll their own Chinese version of the software with in-country servers, privacy compliance, surveillance compliance, etc. or pay Baidu/Tencent.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/chines-mandatory-standards-vehicle-cybersecurity-icv-data-振强-焦-qupec

This coincides with Kia/Hyundai announcing the same thing. Either they need Baidu tech to compete with BYD in the Chinese market because it’s just that good or locally desirable. Or the countries regulators require it. Given they all announced this at the auto show at the same time, seems too coordinated for competing car companies.

Wow that’s literally the whole article in the headline.

Yeah, if I’m reading that right they’re complaining that they’re stuck at phase one of enshitification - lose money on aquiring users. The reason behind that is they’re not able to monopolize the market for their games. “These damn mobile stores won’t let us turn the corner and put the clamps on our users. Fix it please.”