> Unless these tools can be run locally independent of a service provider, we're just trading one boss for another.
Many of them already can be. Many more existing models will become local options if/when RAM prices decline.
But this won't necessarily prevent enshittification, as there's always a possibility of a new model being tasked with pushing adverts or propaganda. And perhaps existing models already have been — certainly some people talk as if it's so.
People are worried about the wrong side of equation. Other problems with them notwithstanding, it's not the browser wars that killed interoperability on the Web - it's everyone else. Any browser you ever used could issue the same HTTP calls (up to standards of a given time, ofc.) - but it helps you with nothing if the endpoint only works when you've signed a contract to access the private API.
The same fate may come to AI, and that worries me. It won't matter whether you're using OpenAI models, Anthropic models, or locally run models, any more than it matters whether you use Firefox, Chrome or raw cURL - if the business gets to differentiate further between users and AI agents working as users, and especially if they get legal backing to doing that, you can kiss all the benefits of LLMs goodbye, they won't be yours as end-user, they'll all accrue to capitalists, who in turn will lend slivers of it to you, for a price of a subscription.
> Any browser you ever used could issue the same HTTP calls (up to standards of a given time, ofc.) - but it helps you with nothing if the endpoint only works when you've signed a contract to access the private API.
Oh, you mean like everyone who shows up to the Cloudflare submissions pointing out how they've been blocklisted from about 50% of the Internet, without recourse, due to the audacity to not run Chrome? In that circumstance, it's actually worse(?) because to the best of my knowledge I cannot subscribe to Cloudflare Verified to not get the :fu: I just have to hope the Eye of Sauron doesn't find me
That reminds me, it's probably time for my semi-annual Google Takeout
Yeah, that's just an extension of what I said. After all, it's not Google/Chrome that's creating this problem - it's Cloudflare and people who buy this service from them, by making the lazy/economically prudent assumption that anyone who has an opinion on how they consume services can be bucketed together with scammers and denied access.
It stems from the problem I described though - blocking you for not using Chrome is just "only illegitimate users don't use Chrome", which is the next step after "only illegitimate users would want to use our API endpoints without starting a business and signing a formal contract with us".
Many of them already can be. Many more existing models will become local options if/when RAM prices decline.
But this won't necessarily prevent enshittification, as there's always a possibility of a new model being tasked with pushing adverts or propaganda. And perhaps existing models already have been — certainly some people talk as if it's so.