[marcusestes]

This category of complaint is useless until it is unfolded to contain better economic reasoning.

In the case of a VC-subsidized service like Uber, the subsidization is utilized by the company until a a monopolistic or network effect takes hold and allows for price increases.

LLM economics are very different. If the tokens are being subsidized now, they must stay subsidized until some form of monopoly, network effect, or pure R&D advantage is achieved.

In the case of LLMs, the open weight models are nipping at the heels of the proprietary models, and this may be a fundamental condition. Perhaps subsidizing tokens enhances increases engagement, and thus, equity value of the company training the proprietary models, and they reinvest this value back into the energy costs needed to train them. Perhaps this dynamic gives proprietary models the performance distance they need in order to increase their margins.

Hasn't happened yet. It's not clear that it will happen.

Next time I read this take, I want to see eight to ten more paragraphs of analysis before it feels like a contribution to the discourse.