Facebook isn't doing this out of the kindness of their hearts, it just makes business sense for them to do it. AI seems to be in a smiling curve situation right now, where only Nvidia on the hardware side and the consumer facing products using AI as a feature are making money. The companies training the models and trying to sell the API seem like they'll have a hard time not being replaceable commodities
Zuckerberg talked about this in his interview with Lex Friedman.
From what I understand they already benefited by the OSS work on quantization and they see themselves as well positioned to benefit from a world where there's a bunch of specialized AI models/assistants.
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at best it's an example of "Commoditize your complements" by cutting OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google at the knees in their attempt to make much profit off AI - https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/06/12/strategy-letter-v/
Facebook isn't doing this out of the kindness of their hearts, it just makes business sense for them to do it. AI seems to be in a smiling curve situation right now, where only Nvidia on the hardware side and the consumer facing products using AI as a feature are making money. The companies training the models and trying to sell the API seem like they'll have a hard time not being replaceable commodities
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smiling_curve
I don't think this is a case of "commoditize your complements." What's the complement to AI that meta owns?
I think it's more of a case of "commoditize your competitors".
- Platforms where users can interact with AI agents
- Extensive user and content data that can be used to fine tune large foundation models
Zuckerberg talked about this in his interview with Lex Friedman.
From what I understand they already benefited by the OSS work on quantization and they see themselves as well positioned to benefit from a world where there's a bunch of specialized AI models/assistants.
So much of business is about people and connections, and hey, guess what Meta deals in? People and connections!
He’s also got tens, perhaps hundreds, of millions of dollars worth of free labour from AI researchers working to make his models better.
Personally, I don't care if they had a plan to profit from this move as long as it brings value for the public, it's a win-win action.
Sure it is not benevolent. But fuck do I love them for it right now. It’s better for all of us. And it took the game to a whole new level.