> It's a winner-takes-all market and everyone wants to be the next Google

absolutely isn't! if billed per token, there is no reason to be married to a single model family provider at all. the models have very different strengths and weaknesses, you should be taking advantage of this at all times.

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wavemode a day ago | parent [-]

people used to say this about search engines and web browsers, as well

regardless, eventually Google became the universal default for both. When it comes to software, the average person doesn't shop around for the technologically optimal choice, they just use what everyone else is using.

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upcoming-sesame a day ago | parent | next [-]

Google search is free to use. if they spike the models price up, people will look for alternatives

	▲	wavemode a day ago \| parent [-]
		AI (that is, plain chat) is always going to be free to use as well. Google and Microsoft are going to keep it that way. And make the money back via ads. That's why ChatGPT still has a free option. If they didn't, they would lose a billion users overnight to Gemini.

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baq a day ago | parent | prev [-]

my point is today there is no clear winner. opus, gpt 5.4 and gemini have different strengths. google search was running circles around competition in basically all use cases.