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Iterative leaps of open-source models becoming better are huge examples that companies competing on LLM model layer have an ephemeral moat. Serious question: a

Iterative leaps of open-source models becoming better are huge examples that companies competing on LLM model layer have an ephemeral moat. Serious question: assuming this is true, if an incumbent-challenger like OpenAI wants to win, how do they effectively compete against current services such as Meta and Google product offerings which can be AI enhanced in a snap?

cal85 2y ago
Their moat atm is being 6 months ahead of everyone else on model quality. Plus the ‘startup’ advantage over their corporate competitors. Oh and they can hoard a lot of the best talent because it’s an extremely high status place to work. Their task now is to maintain and exploit those advantages as best they can while they build up a more stable long term moat: lots of companies having their tech deeply integrated into their operations.
- andy99 2y ago
  Just to add, they don't have the baggage of google or Meta so they can do more without worrying how it impacts the rest of the company. And of the big players they seem the most aware of how important good data is and have paid for lots of high quality curated fine tuning data in order to build a proper product instead of doing a research project. That mindset and the commercial difference it makes shouldn't be underestimated.
- myko 2y ago
  > Their moat atm is being 6 months ahead of everyone else on model quality Really? Most of our testing now has Gemini Pro on par or better (though we haven't tested omni/Ultra) It really seems like the major models have all topped out / are comparable
123yawaworht456 2y ago
the very first big AI company who gives up trying to lobotomize and emasculate their models to align with the values of 0.01% of the world population will win a lot of hearts and minds overnight. the censorship necessary for corporate applications can be trivially implemented as a toggleable layer, using a small, efficient, specialist model to detect no-no words and wrongthink in inputs/outputs. gpt, claude, gemini, even llama and mistral, all tend to produce the same nauseating slop, easily-recognizable by anyone familiar with LLMs - these days, I cringe when I read 'It is important to remember' even when I see it in some ancient, pre-slop writings. creativity - one of the very few applications generative AI can truly excel at - is currently impossible. it could revolutionize entertainment, but it isn't allowed to. the models are only allowed to produce inoffensive, positivity-biased, sterile slop that no human being finds attractive.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- andy99 2y ago
  > the censorship necessary for corporate applications can be trivially implemented as a toggleable layer, using a small, efficient, specialist model to detect no-no words and wrongthink in inputs/outputs. What's really funny is they all have "jailbreaks" that you can use to make then say anything anyway. So for "corporate" uses, the method you propose is already mandatory. The whole thing (censoring base models) is a misguided combination of ideology and (over the top) risk aversion.
- malfist 2y ago
  Please explain what you mean when you say the 0.01% are emasculating AI
  - mavhc 2y ago
    They're suggesting that 99.99% of people don't mind if AI reflects biases of society. Which is weird because I'm pretty sure most people in the world aren't old white middle class Americans
    - ben_w 2y ago
      Indeed. If religion is a good guide, then I think around 24% think that pork is inherently unclean and not fit for human consumption under penalty of divine wrath, and 15% think that it's immoral to kill cattle for any reason. Also, non-religiously, I'd guess around 17% think "中国很棒，只有天安门广场发生了好事".
      - fjdjshsh 2y ago
        Maybe you meant something like 天安门广场上只发生了好事
        ben_w 2y ago
        Given I was using Google Translate, which isn't great at Chinese, I assume you are absolutely correct. My written Chinese is limited 一二三 and that from Mahjong tiles, and I keep getting 四 and 五 mixed up.
golergka 2y ago
They scare the government into regulating the field into oblivion.

cal85 2y ago

Their moat atm is being 6 months ahead of everyone else on model quality. Plus the ‘startup’ advantage over their corporate competitors. Oh and they can hoard a lot of the best talent because it’s an extremely high status place to work. Their task now is to maintain and exploit those advantages as best they can while they build up a more stable long term moat: lots of companies having their tech deeply integrated into their operations.

andy99 2y ago
Just to add, they don't have the baggage of google or Meta so they can do more without worrying how it impacts the rest of the company. And of the big players they seem the most aware of how important good data is and have paid for lots of high quality curated fine tuning data in order to build a proper product instead of doing a research project. That mindset and the commercial difference it makes shouldn't be underestimated.
myko 2y ago
> Their moat atm is being 6 months ahead of everyone else on model quality Really? Most of our testing now has Gemini Pro on par or better (though we haven't tested omni/Ultra) It really seems like the major models have all topped out / are comparable

123yawaworht456 2y ago

the very first big AI company who gives up trying to lobotomize and emasculate their models to align with the values of 0.01% of the world population will win a lot of hearts and minds overnight. the censorship necessary for corporate applications can be trivially implemented as a toggleable layer, using a small, efficient, specialist model to detect no-no words and wrongthink in inputs/outputs. gpt, claude, gemini, even llama and mistral, all tend to produce the same nauseating slop, easily-recognizable by anyone familiar with LLMs - these days, I cringe when I read 'It is important to remember' even when I see it in some ancient, pre-slop writings. creativity - one of the very few applications generative AI can truly excel at - is currently impossible. it could revolutionize entertainment, but it isn't allowed to. the models are only allowed to produce inoffensive, positivity-biased, sterile slop that no human being finds attractive.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
andy99 2y ago
> the censorship necessary for corporate applications can be trivially implemented as a toggleable layer, using a small, efficient, specialist model to detect no-no words and wrongthink in inputs/outputs. What's really funny is they all have "jailbreaks" that you can use to make then say anything anyway. So for "corporate" uses, the method you propose is already mandatory. The whole thing (censoring base models) is a misguided combination of ideology and (over the top) risk aversion.
malfist 2y ago
Please explain what you mean when you say the 0.01% are emasculating AI
- mavhc 2y ago
  They're suggesting that 99.99% of people don't mind if AI reflects biases of society. Which is weird because I'm pretty sure most people in the world aren't old white middle class Americans
  - ben_w 2y ago
    Indeed. If religion is a good guide, then I think around 24% think that pork is inherently unclean and not fit for human consumption under penalty of divine wrath, and 15% think that it's immoral to kill cattle for any reason. Also, non-religiously, I'd guess around 17% think "中国很棒，只有天安门广场发生了好事".
    - fjdjshsh 2y ago
      Maybe you meant something like 天安门广场上只发生了好事
      - ben_w 2y ago
        Given I was using Google Translate, which isn't great at Chinese, I assume you are absolutely correct. My written Chinese is limited 一二三 and that from Mahjong tiles, and I keep getting 四 and 五 mixed up.

golergka 2y ago

They scare the government into regulating the field into oblivion.