alt Hacker NewsI tried it on a non trivial, but also well documented and self contained task. It did amazingly well. I used deepseek v4 pro via deepseek platform. The model is very fast and also it is super cheap. I burned only 0.06 USD (I reckon how the same task would have cost me had I used e.g., amp).
PS. mentioning amp because i used to use it and I pay directly for token. I topped up 5 usd so I will be going to use it and see how far can it take me. But my impression so far is even when model subsidization is done, those open source models are quite viable alternatives.
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have you used it for non coding tasks via MCP, like Figma/Paper for design or Ableton MVP for sound design?
The token cost makes it tempting to use for token-heavy tasks like this
> even when model subsidization is done, those open source models are quite viable alternatives.
Model inference was never subsidized. Inference is highly profitable with today's prices. That's why you have many inference providers. My guess, the prices for inference will go down, as more competition starts cutting the margin.
It's model training, development and R&D that cost a lot, and companies creating closed models don't have any business model except astroturfing and trying to recover training costs through overpriced inference.
> But my impression so far is even when model subsidization is done, those open source models are quite viable alternatives.
My understanding is that DeepSeek V4 Pro is going to be uniquely good at working on consumer platforms with SSD offload, due to its extremely lean KV cache. Even if you only have a slow consumer platform, you should be able to just let it grind on a huge batch of tasks in parallel entirely unattended, and wake up later to a finished job.
AIUI, people are even experimenting with offloading the KV cache itself to storage, which may unlock this batching capability even beyond physical RAM limits as contexts grow. (This used to be considered a bad idea with bulky KV caches, due to concerns about wearout and performance, but the much leaner KV cache of DeepSeek V4 changes the picture quite radically.)