> I sometimes get the impression that many people claiming that local models are as good as frontier models work in "token poor" environments. If you can't build large-scale programs using at least Opus 4.5+ then it's difficult to compare.

I sometimes get the impression that people posting comments on HN don't realize that LLMs do more than vibe coding.

Yeah no kidding. For instance, if you are an independent inventor trying to write a patent while keeping your patent lawyer expenses to a minimum, you want to write as much of the first draft(s) of the patent as you can yourself. (You’ll save billable hours with your patent lawyer, and you’ll end up with a better patent because you’ll communicate your innovations more clearly to your lawyer.)

However, and this is the big thing, you absolutely do not want to be asking a SOTA LLM for help with the language in your patent application. This is because describing your invention to a web based LLM could be considered a public “disclosure” of your invention, which, (after a one year grace period goes by), could put your invention in the public domain, basically—and thereby prevent you (or anyone else) from being able to ever patent the invention. Plus, you know, a random unscrupulous employer at the SOTA company could be reviewing logs and notice your great idea, and file a patent on it before you do, and remember, the United States patent office went to “first to file” in 2013.

Oh and don’t take legal advice from random people in the internet by the way.