Separate question: "now that AI is here and development isn't a moat any more, how does a business defend itself from competition?"
That second question is a direct result of AI. Five years ago the amount of cost and effort spent on software development was a moat. Now it's not. So that answers the first question completely, I think.
As for the second question - market sector knowledge, customer contacts and industry reputation, all the usual non-technical things that make a moat. Also, we may now be living in a world where software companies cannot expect to be monopolies in their markets any more. This company will have to compete with many similar competitors for market share, like in most other markets. I think this is a good thing. Less enshittification will ensue.
[–] whatever1 2 days ago
[–] marcus_holmes 2 days ago
If a business can create software cheaper, then it can charge its customers less for that software (or, conversely, if a business can use an AI to create bespoke software for cheaper than it would cost to buy that software) then the customer business saves money. It, in turn, can use that money to improve its offering to its customers. They, in turn, and so on.
Having cheaper things means everyone gets more things. The value created is created further down the supply chain.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window
[–] whatever1 2 days ago
Where will people work on if both blue and white collar jobs go away? In brothels?
[–] marcus_holmes 2 days ago
I loved the article that was on HN a while back (original article here [0] be warned it's a quite a long read). It compared the current revolution we're undergoing to the Mercantilist revolution when we stopped being farm workers and started doing other things instead, driven by technological change in agriculture.
The answer they came up with: we don't know yet. Much like the move from subsistence farmers who started working in a factory had to rely on other people to feed them, we have to answer this question ourselves and it'll probably involve doing something very different. And wonderful - subsistence farming is a shit life (despite all the influencers saying how amazing being in touch with the land is) and we would all prefer to be working in an nice clean office than trudging knee-deep in muck in the rain trying to keep our crops alive and pest-free. The same will probably be true once the dust settles on this revolution and we'll all be profoundly glad that AI came along.
The big problem we have to face as a society is that we cannot allow all the value from this technology to be captured and retained by the wealthy few. Our ancestors had to fight the same conflict with factory owners during the Industrial Revolution, and they didn't manage to win that war completely despite all the blood shed and battles won.
[0] https://contraptions.venkateshrao.com/p/cognitive-mercantili...
[–] dalyons 2 days ago
[–] marcus_holmes 2 days ago
[–] hattmall 2 days ago
I can't think of any, I'm sure there are some, but I would really like to know. I just don't think for most business the software is so much of a moat unless it's very complex.
[–] marcus_holmes 2 days ago
[0] https://www.afr.com/technology/ai-can-make-free-copies-of-ad...
Value was destroyed.
The hope is that all these unemployed engineers can somehow generate value? Even if they do they need to generate enough value that would employ 4 engineers.