alt Hacker NewsI wish I could be this optimistic. The reality is that as we speak the average consumer doesn't have access to cheap electricity or affordable inference hardware or powerful models that work out of the box on existing computers. The only realistic option for the 99% is to buy a $20-$200 monthly AI subscription, and I don't see that changing anytime soon.
A couple decades ago people used to think that since anyone can build a website internet businesses will never have a moat. In a hyper-capitalist system the top players will always find a way to dig a moat.
You should be more optimistic.
92% of the world has electricity. 74% of the world has internet access. 58% of the world has a personal mobile internet device.
That means the median consumer can access the free AI chatbots from OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.
Moreover, if you compare this to the world in 2000, you'll see that things have only gotten better. ~25 years ago, only 78% of the world had access to electricity, and only 6% had access to the internet. Effectively 0% had access to a personal mobile internet device.
I think, if you look at actual statistics, it is easy to be optimistic.