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Ask HN: What is a 2024-2030 moat for AI

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11–20 of 25 posts

Re: Ask HN: What is a 2024-2030 moat for AI

#11

Love to look stupid.. as foreign speaker and after reading all comments and also all translations in the dictionary, I still have only a vague meaning of "moat" in this context. Could someone define precisely please? Things like "network effects" vs "1-3 team moat" vs "human written text" now totally confused me.. what will protect it? What will be the most precious? Who succeeds?

In this instance 'moat' simply means an advantage that will prevent direct competitors from undercutting your business.

Re: Ask HN: What is a 2024-2030 moat for AI

#12

Love to look stupid.. as foreign speaker and after reading all comments and also all translations in the dictionary, I still have only a vague meaning of "moat" in this context. Could someone define precisely please? Things like "network effects" vs "1-3 team moat" vs "human written text" now totally confused me.. what will protect it? What will be the most precious? Who succeeds?

In this instance 'moat' simply means an advantage that will prevent direct competitors from undercutting your business.

Makes sense, thanks for superquick reply :) Then I'd say nothing even close to certain..

Re: Ask HN: What is a 2024-2030 moat for AI

#13

Love to look stupid.. as foreign speaker and after reading all comments and also all translations in the dictionary, I still have only a vague meaning of "moat" in this context. Could someone define precisely please? Things like "network effects" vs "1-3 team moat" vs "human written text" now totally confused me.. what will protect it? What will be the most precious? Who succeeds?

in this context, a moat is something that only you can do, and no others can copy it. If I make a product with a feature that no one can copy, then no one can take it away from me and I'll always be able to make money off of that.

Re: Ask HN: What is a 2024-2030 moat for AI

#14
post #9

The moats are 1) network effects, 2) switching costs, 3) economics of scale, 4) low cost producer, and 5) brand. So an AI technology where each new user makes it more valuable for the existing users, there are data lock-ins that prevent customer switching, training costs are spread across more users, there is access to lower cost chips/storage/compute and a brand that attracts more users. OpenAI already appears to hi…

May I add: 6) Any anti-AIcorp legislation (that the current incumbents may encourage, which does not affect themselves) - legislative barriers to entry?

I am not convinced they have truly managed this yet - It is a concern of mine though.

Re: Ask HN: What is a 2024-2030 moat for AI

#18
$$$, more $$$. With $$$ you can hire the best of the best and as many GPUs as you wish.

Man I wish I could go back to the 70s when I wake up tomorrow. I'm willing to trade everything for that. Nowadays there is nothing like PCs of that era. Imagine you could go back and start working on the PCs and create programs for them!

Re: Ask HN: What is a 2024-2030 moat for AI

#19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this instance 'moat' simply means an advantage that will prevent direct competitors from undercutting your business.

Makes sense, thanks for superquick reply :) Then I'd say nothing even close to certain..

To make it more explicit, the term comes from “castle moat” - a form of defense that makes it more difficult for others to attack your castle (or in this context, more difficult to compete with your product/company).

Re: Ask HN: What is a 2024-2030 moat for AI

#20
Depending on some court decisions it could be licensing of training data.

We could see Google, Amazon and Microsoft spending billions to license content from media and publishing companies. Rivals without the budget will be forced to stick with public-domain and open licensed content.

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