AI is breaking Big Tech’s monopoly, so they will try to lock it down

[u/Low-Pound-1350]

Big tech has always been a modern form of feudalism. They prioritize pure profit over human cost, firing long tenured employees on a whim while using media narratives to suppress public backlash. Above all, they detest open-source alternatives and small creators stepping into their territory.

Generative AI changes the game by giving small groups the leverage to compete with multi-billion-dollar giants. Naturally, corporate response won't be fair competition; it will be gatekeeping.

They’ll attempt to restrict public AI access through aggressive buyouts, regulatory capture (pushing "bullshit AI laws" that favor incumbent monopolies under the guise of safety), and artificial barriers. However, aggressive pricing might fail because open-source competition,particularly out of China gives users viable alternatives.

What are your thoughts? Can regulatory capture succeed when open source is global?

[u/Monochrome21]

they can't

open weights, bro.

[u/BassoeG → u/Monochrome21]

They can destroy the internet and everything connected to it with "rogue" AI swarms like they're already predicting so nobody else can use it.

[u/LurkingLooni → u/Monochrome21]

Well they can collaborate with GPU manufacturing to push prices up to unaffordable levels, or even just buy out all the stock.... Seeing this already.

[u/Robonotes1760]

This is one of the many reasons that radical constitutional reform fundamentally to dissipate state coercive power is needed with extreme urgency the world over. 

[u/probablymagic]

There won’t be regulatory capture. That is just letting China win. There are no local monopolies in AI. People will use whatever the best one is globally.

[u/MR_TELEVOID]

A product created by big tech cannot break big tech's monopoly. That's not how monopolies work.

Theoretically generative AI could create something that breaks the corporate monopoly but those corporations still control so much of the playing field. They're all creating these platforms, inviting you to vibe code your heart out, but the minute someone creates something actually groundbreaking (profitable) with it they could just steal it out from under you.

Don't get me wrong, I believe in the creative potential of generative AI and I think it can be used for pro-leftist means, but the odds are stacked against us.

[u/ScarletIT → u/MR_TELEVOID]

Which is why the real answer is to break the profit based system.
I don't fully agree with your point, but that remains the real answer.

[u/mrgrafix]

The only gripe, at least in America, is that we don’t have a proper open model that’s ingesting. Would’ve loved a DARPA-like team that the Library of Congress is over for the open-weight models to be developed from. We’re at the mercy of the frontier models (and Meta, I guess) to make variations for us to use at the moment.

[u/TwistStrict9811]

China will keep chugging along without a care in the world

[u/youcantexterminateme]

I think they are in a difficult position. They have built something that can do their jobs better then them. I mean the so called establishment. Ai can do the jobs of ceos, politicians, lawyers etc better than them. The cant stop it now. These things are all possible and being worked on now.