> I've noticed this as well. It's a huge boon for startups, because it means that a lot of functions that you would previously need to hire specialists for (logo design! graphic design! programming! copywriting!) can now be brought in-house, where the founder just does a "good enough" job using AI.

You are missing the other side of the story. All those customers, those AI boosted startups want to attract also have access to AI and so, rather than engage the services of those startups, they will find that AI does a good enough job. So those startups lost most of their customers, incoming layoffs :)

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ares623 3 days ago | parent [-]

Then there's the 3rd leg of the triangle. If a startup built with AI does end up going past the rest of the pack, they will have no technical moat since the AI provider or someone else can just use the same AI to build it.

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makk 3 days ago | parent [-]

How frequently is a technical moat the thing that makes a business successful, relative to other moats?

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ares623 3 days ago | parent [-]

I mean, if taxi companies could build their own Uber in house I’m sure they’d love to and at least take some customers from Uber itself.

A lot of startups are middlemen with snazzy UIs. Middlemen won’t be in as much use in a post AI world, same as devs won’t be as needed (devs are middlemen to working software) or artists (middlemen to art assets)

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LtWorf 3 days ago | parent [-]

But it's not technical, it's due to uber having spent incredible amounts of money into marketing.

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oblio 3 days ago | parent [-]

It is technical :-) The Uber app is a lot more polished (and deep) than the average taxi app.

	▲	ipaddr 3 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		That's why you use Uber because the app has more depth and is more polished? Most people use it for price, ability to get driver quickly, some for safety and many because of brand. Having a functioning app with an easy interface helps onboard and funnel people but it's not a moat just an on ram like a phone number many taxis have.
	▲	r_lee 3 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		No, Uber works nationwide but you'd have to download a Taxi app for every place you went and ... etc. The economies of scale is what makes companies like Uber such heavyweights at least in my opinion Same with AWS etc.