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by kkielhofner 1176 days ago
OpenAI is well funded but again I'm reminded of open source. Way back when in 2008 the Linux Foundation (yes, consider the source) estimated[0] that Fedora 9 represented approximately $10.8B (2008 dollars) in cost if developed commercially/conventionally. I actually believe that (Debian as another example has over 50k packages). Meanwhile it has to be some multiple of that 15 years later.

OpenAI having a few billion or more to throw around seems like a lot. The combined rest of the world including supporting commercial entities (Stability AI and others = Red Hat, IBM, Intel, FB, Google, etc) and open source contributors have the equivalent of many times that.

On a long enough timeline the closed/proprietary approach cannot win.

[0] - https://www.linuxfoundation.org/press/press-release/linux-fo...

2 comments

We are aligned. I just wonder when we'll get to a stage where we can start producing value faster than the landlord types can charge rent on it.

I think this tech might actually represent an opportunity to break out of the systemic quagmire we've been in societally for so long - rotting institutions dictating access to information and entrenched powers accumulating for the sake of accumulation.

I want everyone to have a personal assistant who can help them learn whatever it is they want to learn, for free, at any time of day. We're so damn close.

> On a long enough timeline the closed/proprietary approach cannot win.

Yes it can. The magic word is "regulation".