[dylan604]

I like how when your illogical notion is challenged, you respond by saying the challenger is being emotional.

There is no point in saying that an AI company can just ignore its R&D. There is no company without the R&D. Because of that, any conversation pretending it doesn't exist is pointless. There is no constructive conversation with that as the premise.

[infecto]

You’re arguing against a point I’m not making. I’m not saying R&D isn’t necessary or that it “doesn’t exist”, I’m saying that operationally, the service itself runs at a profit before accounting for R&D. That matters because it means they have a viable revenue engine that could, in theory, fund a sustainable R&D budget if they adjusted spend.

That’s a very different conversation than “pretend R&D doesn’t matter.” No one is suggesting they stop building; the question is whether they can align the burn rate with the revenue base over time. Companies make those tradeoffs constantly when maturing from heavy investment to profitability.

And yes, you are being emotional, not because I disagree with you, but because your language is inflammatory and brutish. It’s hard to have a constructive discussion when every response is dialed to 11. Misframing the premise as “ignoring a huge cost” isn’t debate, it’s a straw man, and it sidesteps the real question of whether the underlying business model works once R&D is right-sized.

Would love to have a real critical discussion on why you disagree but please leave the bad language out of it. It’s boring and I know it’s your typical route in these types of discussions but at least have a valid retort.

[amanaplanacanal]

I have no horse in this race, but... Hasn't a huge amount of R&D already been spent? You can't retroactively make that go away.

[infecto]

Correct, past R&D spend is already sunk and can’t be undone. But that’s why it’s useful to separate sunk costs from future operating costs when evaluating viability.

The relevant question is whether the ongoing revenue from the existing product is strong enough to support a sustainable level of R&D going forward. If your runtime margins are healthy, you have options: scale back R&D burn, focus on incremental improvements, or use the profits to fund more ambitious projects.