Having been a poor person learning how to code I'd say there's a huge difference between just needing a computer vs needing that plus a dozens per month subscription.

I don't know that there's much we can do about that potentially becoming the new normal in the future, but it bums me out.

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reidjs 6 days ago | parent | next [-]

There are free and offline options, like Llama.cpp, but you will have to pay by giving up your privacy to Meta (or similar large companies)

	▲	Revisional_Sin 10 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		How does using an offline model give up your privacy? Also, running models locally requires good hardware to get acceptable performance. It's still a large barrier to entry.
	▲	rurp 6 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Sure, for now, and maybe in the future. But it's possible that paid models will end up greatly outpacing free ones, and at some point the companies controlling them will stop burning billions of dollars per month and jack up prices.

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infecto 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

No it’s not much different. I grew up poor. It was a struggle to have internet access.