Chamath's argument (https://research.socialcapital.com/p/open-vs-closed): companies give away the thing they dont sell for free, so the thing they do sell is worth more. Meta makes money though ads,…

2 points•Dinuda•about 3 hours ago•1 comment•
Chamath's argument (https://research.socialcapital.com/p/open-vs-closed): companies give away the thing they dont sell for free, so the thing they do sell is worth more.

Meta makes money though ads, Google and Microsoft from cloud.

The losers are companies whose business is selling access to closed models. But still companies are paying more and mroe for closed models anyway! Does this theory hold up?

1 comment

ben_wabout 3 hours ago
At present, the models are being replaced with better ones on very short cycles. While open models exist and are even useful, they're generally a few months behind the closed models in performance.

If you are (and most of us are) still encountering cases where the closed models are not good enough, the open models are (mostly) even worse, so they're not competition.

I anticipate the money will run out, and when it does the open models catch up (that appears to be cheaper than maintaining a leading position); at that point, I expect us to face the "commoditise your complement" situation.

Read the full thread on Hacker News →

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