[bandrami]

> few users, no revenue or minimal revenue

The 900 pound gorilla has for a while been "where is all the output of these LLMs?", and this seems to be the answer; the number of apps on the various app stores has skyrocketed over the past two quarters but installs overall are actually down a little bit. So it seems like we've had an explosion of software that one or two people use. Which is a cool situation to think about but is pretty bearish for the "AI as a profitable business" idea.

[tmikaeld]

Marketing was a problem with apps even before AI, which, with today’s slopforests makes it even harder for consumers to see any of your trees even if they wanted to.

[bandrami]

Right but if we're going to a small-batch bespoke development model then "marketing" more or less disappears because why would I pay someone to talk to an LLM when I can also talk to an LLM? The money goes from the end user to the lab in this model.

[bandrami]

I should expand that: the money goes from the end user to the lab and only in the cases where the marginal utility of the small app exceeds the cost.

[jambalaya8]

What happens then, though? Is it good to have tens or hundreds of thousands of potentially angry marketing managers roaming around that were developed out of careers?

[bandrami]

IDK, get Springsteen to record an aid concert for them?

[jambalaya8]

I think you misconstrued my reply. I wasn't talking about that aspect.

[davidgl]

100 points for the term Slopforest :-)

[sarchertech]

I haven’t checked in recently but a couple months ago there was an increase on the Apple App Store, but not on Android.

And when I did a spot check, most new apps were just wrappers around LLM APIs.