> but rather that they're doing that while Chinese competitors are releasing models in vaguely similar ballpark under Apache license.
The LLM isn't 100% of the product... the open source is just part. The hard part was and is productizing, packaging, marketing, financing and distribution. A model by itself is just one part of the puzzle, free or otherwise. In other words, my uncle Bill and my mother can and do use ChatGPT. Fill in the blank open-source model? Maybe as a feature in another product.
>my uncle Bill and my mother can and do use ChatGPT.
They have the name brand for sure. And that is worth a lot.
Notice how Deepseek went from a nobody to making mainstream news though. The only thing people like more than a trusted thing is being able to tell their friends about this amazing cheap good alternative they "discovered".
It's good to be #1 mind share wise but without network effect that still leave you vulnerable
> In other words, my uncle Bill and my mother can and do use ChatGPT
So what? DAUs don't mean anything if there isn't an ad product attached to it. Regular people aren't paying for ChatGPT, and even if they did, the price would need to be several multiples of what Netflix charges to break even.
The LLM isn't 100% of the product... the open source is just part. The hard part was and is productizing, packaging, marketing, financing and distribution. A model by itself is just one part of the puzzle, free or otherwise. In other words, my uncle Bill and my mother can and do use ChatGPT. Fill in the blank open-source model? Maybe as a feature in another product.