[HN Gopher] AI companies are pivoting from creating gods to buil...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       AI companies are pivoting from creating gods to building products
        
       Author : randomwalker
       Score  : 11 points
       Date   : 2024-08-19 21:34 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.aisnakeoil.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.aisnakeoil.com)
        
       | Kuinox wrote:
       | > OpenAI and Anthropic focused on building models and not
       | worrying about products. For example, it took 6 months for OpenAI
       | to bother to release a ChatGPT iOS app and 8 months for an
       | Android app!
       | 
       | Imagine not understanding that their main way of doing money is
       | through their API for other companies, and not through a product.
       | They are focused on doing something they are good: good AI
       | models, they let other companies take the risk to build product
       | on top of it, and reap benefits from theses products.
        
         | echelon wrote:
         | > Imagine not understanding that their main way of doing money
         | is through their API for other companies, and not through a
         | product. They are focused on doing something they are good:
         | good AI models, they let other companies take the risk to build
         | product on top of it, and reap benefits from theses products.
         | 
         | There is no moat in an API or foundation model. One LLM is as
         | good as any other, and it'll be a race to the bottom.
         | 
         | The only way to mint a new FAANG is to build a platform that
         | captivates and ensnares the populace, like iPhone or Instagram.
         | 
         | The value in AI will be accrued at the product layer, not the
         | infra, not the foundation model. The product layer.
         | 
         | It might be too late to do this with LLMs and voice assistants,
         | though. OpenAI is super distracted, and there's plenty of time
         | for Google, Meta, and Apple to come in and fill the void.
         | 
         | Everyone was too busy selling the creation of gods, or
         | spreading FOMO to elevate themselves to lofty valuations. At
         | the end of the day, business still looks the same as it always
         | has: create value for customers, ideally in a big market where
         | you can own a large slice. LLMs and foundation models are
         | fungible and easy.
        
         | simonw wrote:
         | Their numbers aren't public, but I'm not 100% certain that
         | they're making significantly more money through the API than
         | they are through paid subscribers to their products.
         | 
         | They have a LOT of paid subscribers, and they're signing big
         | "enterprise" deals with companies that have thousands of seats.
        
           | Kuinox wrote:
           | Of course, you need to have companies that build product on
           | top of it, that takes times. So I would not be surprised if
           | in the first few years, subscription will earn more than API
           | usage. But on the long term, if OpenAI stay as the top AI
           | model, they will earn massive money through API calls.
        
         | fire_lake wrote:
         | Meanwhile Amazon will host Llama and other models in AWS (which
         | you are already using) at reasonable rates.
        
       | warkdarrior wrote:
       | If you cannot do, teach (or write a blog about it).
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2024-08-19 23:00 UTC)