[chubot]

OK but this is the same pattern as image uploading services - https://drewdevault.com/2014/10/10/The-profitability-of-onli...

1. google was a good search engine when it was less profitable

2. now that it is more profitable, it is bad

Importantly, it was possible for Google to be good AND profitable at the same time! Roughly from 2003-2013 perhaps.

1. OpenAI is nowhere near profitable ... it seems to be heavily dependent on Microsoft, and in some sense on Microsoft's desire to compete with Google in certain areas

2. If it ever becomes profitable, does anyone want to argue it won't get significantly worse? It will probably have a bunch of bad side effects, like Google's decline did on the web itself

I guess this is "normal", but it also seems pretty inefficient to me ... Part of the problem is that "free" is a special price that users like

IMO it would have be nice if Google search was sustainable at a high quality -- I think it easily could have been

[llm_trw]

LLMs aren't tech that can be free, the good ones are expensive enough that we have to move away from the malvertising economy that was supported by keyword searches.

Here's hoping capitalism starts working again with subscriptions so users are the consumers and not the product.