The giants knew this was coming, and soon 95% of AI tasks will be able to be done by open models (coding, research, cowork style work). So why pay a premium? Why use them at all? This leaves the labs with two options:

1) push the frontier in a way only massive scale can, and cash in on it (mythos level cyber security, recursive training, frontier science work). There’s big money for never before possible capabilities.

2) own the app layer with their edge in reputation and powered by their infrastructure. Be apple where everyone else is Linux. Do design, coding, research, SMBs, legal, finance, healthcare and more (they are doing all of this).

Will it be enough to justify a Google level valuation? We’ll see how fast they can push it.

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fredley 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

3) Buy all the RAM, increasing the barrier to entry to push back the tide a bit, in time for a juicy IPO.

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orwin 12 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Mythos was outperformed by small, specific local models in multiple oss project.

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ed_elliott_asc 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Won’t all they need to do is say “best in class, latest models, fastest” and wine and dine a few execs and those enterprise deals will be signed?

In this case the people tasked with using the product won’t actually mind.

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NitpickLawyer 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

No one is getting fired for using SotA.

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spwa4 2 hours ago | parent [-]

If the price difference is 2x? Sure.

If the price difference is 50x? No way.

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brainwad an hour ago | parent | next [-]

So long as the benefit:cost ratio is still sufficiently high, I don't think anyone gets fired for not scrimping. Better to encourage positive EV behaviour by your employees than to scare them away by firing them for not being perfectly optimal.

	▲	ThunderSizzle 28 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		The CEO won't get in trouble, but the employee who can't justify a bad result/prompt?

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watwut 6 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Accenture says "yeah totally CEOs will pay a lot for literal nothing"

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RobotToaster an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Tell that to Oracle

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actionfromafar 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Yes, exactly that. Be Azure and Office 365 and Sharepoint and AWS where everyone else is Debian Stable on a USB thumbdrive.

	▲	fragmede an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Office 365? Ew, Google docs, please.

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ForHackernews an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Google already owns the app layer, and hardware, and they are a frontier-level AI research firm.

I don't see how Anthropic or OpenAI survives being eaten by DeepSeek et al from the bottom of the stack and Google from the top.

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dubbie99 an hour ago | parent [-]

The only reason people use google apps is because they are cheap and reliable. The user experience is awful. Have you ever tried to find a document you had open yesterday in drive?

	▲	hobo_mark 3 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Uh? Recently and frequently opened documents always show up on the first screen as soon as I open the app or website.

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sofixa 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> own the app layer with their edge in reputation and powered by their infrastructure. Be apple where everyone else is Linux. Do design, coding, research, SMBs, legal, finance, healthcare and more (they are doing all of this).

The problem with this is that there are incumbents in all those spaces doing their own AI agents / platforms, and they're the ones choosing the models they use internally and they sell to their own customers. The margins and the possibility to fine tunie using open weight models, as well as the guarantee they'll keep running at predictable costs (no US orders yanking access), make them a very appealing option.

And if you're a company that needs an AI powered legal software, would you buy it from OpenAI/Anthropic, or from someone who you've already bought legal software from before and has the domain knowledge?