> I think it's clear that inference is a viable business model.

Only if you also have the model thats better than anyone else's.

As soon as models are free, or there are no newer models (assuming thats going to happen, and thats not a given) then the only thing you can compete on is price.

This means that the only thing you have to differentiate is either price, speed or ease of use. (or regulatory capture...)

We are at pets.com level of spend currently. Unless model development becomes cheaper, then we are going to run out of novel debt but not really debt mechanisms.