[saxenaabhi]

Sure, but i don't think it's reasonable to hold given level of capability constant in a landscape where a give consumer of AI also has competitive pressures.

I can't use last year's SOTA model when my competitors can use the current SOTA model.

This is also baked in the eye watering valuations of model companies.

[margalabargala]

> I can't use last year's SOTA model when my competitors can use the current SOTA model.

Lots of people can. Tools don't need to be top of the line to be useful. Snap-on may exist, but they don't put Harbor Freight out of business.

Advanced IDEs exist but complex projects were still built in vim.

The more capable the budget models get, the lower the marginal gains from using the frontier models, even if the frontier models always stay 6 months ahead.

[onlyrealcuzzo]

> I can't use last year's SOTA model when my competitors can use the current SOTA model.

You can use open source models of equivalent or better capabilities for ~90% less cost...

If you kick and scream hard enough, you can always find a data point to make sure you're correct.

No one is saying that the Opus model last year costs 90% less now than it does this year.

That's not how it works.

There are better, more efficient models with equivalent capabilities that are 90% cheaper (see DeepSeek v4 Pro).