alt Hacker NewsBut most commodities are the same way. It’s super expensive to drill for oil. I need oil and I’m in no position to mine my own because of the massive capital investment. But it doesn’t stop it from being a pure commodity.
I couldn’t care less which company drilled for the oil… it’s all the same to me. Models are increasingly no different.
OpenAI and Anthropic are a gas station saying “buy our gas for 10x the price!” When the world is looking at them saying it’s just gas, we’ll take the cheaper brand. We’ve tested your gas and it’s really no better than the stuff that’s 1/10th the price.
Thats why their present business plan is screwed.
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I don't see any difference where I put gas from one place to another. But there is definitely differences between one model and another or even plans themselves .
So the business challenge is to balance sizable investments and relatively small marginal costs. Not so different from other digital goods.
The key difference is that the models upgrade multiple times a year. It is an inherently different than a commodity market
I argue there's no difference. At least OpenAI/Anthropic can be considered premium like Octane 93 while OSS ones are 87.
I agree 90% of the world can work with 87 gas, but there's always niche/luxury market where 93 can make small difference.
(edit: typo)