Re:Meta does everything OpenAI should be
by hatenberg on Wednesday April 24, 2024 @11:29AM
(#40145565)
You don't understand complement and social media.
Content creation is complement to social media, because content (videos, etc.) is shared on social media and in order to get it in front of people, you have to pay.
Platforms and Social media has replaced most of the world's ad surfaces, it's become THE way to get in front of people. Social media is a giant attention market but ultimately functions the same way as amazon: You pay to get your product in front of people.
LLMs commoditize content creation. Fewer people (after layoffs) can create more content. The money you save on laying off people then will be pumped pumped into boosting to get the content in front of people as the auction prices to get the right eyeballs go up due to increased competition.
Joel's reasoning requires that the complementing product be seen by the consumer as a requirement for consuming your product. Babysitters complement nice restaurants because parents need a babysitter to go. Gas complements cars because cars won't run without gas and the driver must buy gas periodically in order to use the car.
LLMs don't occupy the same space with relation to social media, it's more that they're quickly becoming an essential internal component for any social media site. Joel's reasoning doesn't apply to internal components that are invisible to the end user. A restaurant may benefit from finding a source of cheap lobster, but they don't benefit from publicizing that source to the whole world. Lobster is not a complement to restaurants, it's a component. LLMs occupy the same kind of space with relation to social media—they are something that every social media company would benefit from having cheaply, but not something their users need in order to consume their service.