Re:Anthropic IPO
by tob_scott_a on Thursday November 12, 2026 @10:24AM
(#50468918)
LLMs make it easier to bypass the moat, too. They can automate migrations, etc. pretty smoothly.
(Since we're talking about moats and cyber-feudalism, where does siege warfare come in?)
Re:Anthropic IPO
by Lvl999Noob on Thursday November 12, 2026 @11:14AM
(#50469773)
Since siege warfare is about bringing down the fortifications and a moat is part of those fortifications, cyber siege may be something akin to patent trolling or IP copyrights? Fire off dozens or hundreds of claims against your target and drown them in legal costs.
they haven't really done that so far. no offense but LLMs didn't exist in the 80. or 90. or 6y ago.
and I'm just as old as you.
Then you have the experience to know that every land grab in technology so far has followed the same enshittification path. At first it's all about competing with other entrants to provide value and win customers.
Then, inexorably, it shifts from winning customers to defending their turf.
Then, inexorably, it shifts from protecting turf to maximizing extraction from their turf.
If you believe that this will be different, why not? But for now, I'm expecting this to go the same way.
Re:Anthropic IPO
by mrdootdoot on Thursday November 12, 2026 @12:04PM
(#50470516)
I can't wait for anthropics next big drop to be that it can order you a pizza and steering towards benign, token burning features that you didn't ask for and eye real-estate abuse for ads.
It's the end of an era. Lets pray open weight models give us a real choice soon.
In the meantime, Stonks up Anthropic.
Speaking as someone who has been at professionally this since the 1980s, I suggest that while sometimes switching costs and network effects happen "organically," in this century businesses devote enormous amounts of attention to artificially building switching costs.
It's such a dirty practice that we have a four-letter word for it, a "moat." But of course, the moat isn't really to keep competitors out of a market, it's actually to keep customers trapped within it.
I fully expect every one of these AI providers to put as much work into trying to trap their customers within their ecosystem that they do to improve their capabilities.