[shadowmint]

tldr: The author claims 'Vertical AI startups are inherently defensible'.

My point is, so what? That's not a good indicator of anything meaningful.

The values that make them 'defensible' only make them difficult to replicate, that might look good on paper or in a pitch ('no one else can do this...') but they're not indicators of value, and the pose significant risks to execution.

/shrug

You don't have to agree, I really don't care; but this article sounds more like AI hype to spin to investors than meaningful advice.

Picking ML models that are difficult to replicate, hard to obtain data for and require a diverse team is not what you should be trying to do.

[bluetwo]

I think he is looking at it from the point of view that you want to build a company that has value.

Focus on a problem that has value in an industry that has money. Collect as much data as possible to prototype and use the tool itself to collect additional data as it is used.

I don't see that as hype, I see that as a useful roadmap.