We're regularly getting demonstrations that being at the frontier is no moat at all. "Run open weights locally" was literally on the HN front page a few days ago as a primary concern/competitor for the big US labs. So there's a big and meaningful gap between "not frontier" and "bottom feeder". There's just tons of applications where you don't need "the best" model, especially not tomorrow's best model.

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randomgermanguy 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

But a better model almost always comes with a better dollar-per-task-accomplished ratio, compared to worse models.

So not only outpriced, outperformed, but also outregulated.

Idk i wish there was some bright light in the future, but i dont see it

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oblio 2 hours ago | parent [-]

I would rather LLM cost curves go down 10x and then we really do something.

We need a lot more hardware for universal LLMs (probably 10x, if not more), and we need it to be cheaper.

If anything, I would fund a DRAM maker in Europe.

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nickpp an hour ago | parent [-]

> I would fund a DRAM maker in Europe.

I wouldn't. I can think of at least 10 regulations (labor and environmental chef amongst them) that would render such a maker uncompetitive from the start. Chinese makers would eat its lunch.

	▲	ezst 2 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Doesn't matter, we need to opt out of the rat race that consists of making the planet worse for the next generations in exchange of quick bucks for the oligarchs. The way is to factor externalities in the final price, reward sustainable behaviour and set better standards. And that's what's going on: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/12/how-europes-new-... The same applies to labour conditions and quality standards. And don't bring up arguments like "it can't work" or "that hurt competitiveness": all workers around the world want the exact same thing, a livable planet for their children. The only ones to object are the global elite who one ends up defending when they make the current status quo sound inevitable.
	▲	oblio 18 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		We used to have some. Also, regarding labor, that part boggles the mind. Aren't those factories supposed to be highly automated? Also, at this point DRAM availability is becoming a security risk.

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

Those things are not mutually exclusive. We can have open weight, yet close-to-frontier models. China has very strong models that can also run locally.

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realusername 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

That's true, however, if you are too far from the top models, you still are in danger of not being in the race anymore.

And with half the score of the top models, that's where Mistral is at.

As it is now, no tech company in the EU will use it, if they were just 80% from the top, that would be more feasible.