alt Hacker News> I think people who kept saying there is no moat in AI is about to be shocked at how strong of a moat there actually is for ChatGPT
Given one can (at least for the moment) export one's entire chat history from ChatGPT, what exactly would stop a ChatGPT user from switching to an alternative if the alternative is either better, or better value?
Replies
The answer is friction. What % of this billion of users will bother to export their chat history (which is already a lot) and import another another llm. That number is too small to matter.
Google can just build "import from ChatGPT" into Chrome, like switching from Internet Explorer back in the day.
What alternative? Switching requires something what is better 10x
- Knowing that an alternative exists
- Switching effort
Word of mouth usually works just with one vendor at a time.
99% of users having no idea what "export chat history" means?
People are being weird about this. ChatGPT has no moat because switching costs are zero. There's no investment into a particular AI service.
ChatGPT has mindshare but that's not the same as it being a moat. The fact that people will continue to use ChatGPT after some gentle frog boiling is true of any service. Adding ads is going to be a measure of how real people tolerate ads more than anything about ChatGPT. Normal people really don't care that much and it bothers me—and probably most of HN.
No one normal will do that. And I'm betting that OpenAI will get rid of that functionality soon.