I read the announcement of Antrophic, and while I think it is good in many ways, it also raised my eyebrows.
From a security perspective, it can make sense that only foundational technologies get access to this system. But if you look at the list of companies, it is not just a list. That is a very specific list that numerous businesses are not part of. Businesses like you and me, small businesses or small teams, or even foreign competitors.
And I do understand that the list is not the whole list. But did you spot an "apply here" button? I didn't.
Is this the start of a trend to have the mighty companies have more powerful AI at their disposal, thus making it harder for their smaller competition, or startups to compete? All from a “security” standpoint?
I have nothing against offering certain products at a certain cost to only a certain group of customers. I understand they want to make money, and that is easier to do at Large Enterprises than with me.
But it troubles me deeply that the choice is made for you. Even if you have the money, or want to invest to have the supreme model, you can’t. Why? Because you might be a hacker. But if that is an honest concern, why do you give Opus 4.6 out to hackers then? Wasn’t that the best model as well for the last few months?
No, I think there are two things at play here. It’s like I said earlier, the large enterprises, need something to stay ahead of the game. Look at the list; many of them are investors. And second, I think they do not want to provide access to non-American or non-Western companies. Again, for the same competitive reasons.
I have already seen in many posts that the cost is high, but that is A) a choice made by Anthropic B) a choice for us if we are willing to pay.
I sincerely hope this will not be the end for having frontier model access for the average person. But at the same time, this has been normal practice for years. ASML is not selling their best machines to China. Good software is unaffordable for SMB companies.
Maybe it was false hope of me, to think AI would be for everybody. And maybe I'm just wrong, and this is just temporary. But I don't think so. Last week I read posts about enterprise customers have a 'different' Opus than we have.
Ah, well, let me continue working on my new habit tracker app. Game changer, btw!
[link] [comments]
