Earlier quoted context omitted.
You’re totally right, a few $B is not something any of us are bootstrapping. But there is no secret sauce (at least none that stays secret for long), no meaningful patents, no network/platform effect, and virtually no ability to lock in customers. Compare to other traditional tech companies… think Uber/AirBnB/Databricks/etc. Their product isn’t an algorithm that a competitor can spin up in 6 months. These companies c…
Every big tech in the beginning looked fragile/no moats. I think we'll see that data, knowledge and intelligence compound and at some point it will be as hard to penetrate as Meta's network effects.
Never say never though - look at Tesla coming out of nowhere to push the big three automakers around! Eventually the established players become too complacent and set in their ways, creating an opening for a smaller more nimble competitor with a better idea.
I don't think LLMs are the ultimate form of AI/AGI though. Eventually we'll figure out a better brain-inspired approach that learns continually from it's own experimentation and experience. Perhaps this change of approach will be when some much smaller competitor (someone like John Carmack, perhaps) rapidly come from nowhere and catch the big three flat footed as they tend to their ginormous LLM training sets, infrastructure and entrenched products.
