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points by amelius 20 hours ago | 0 comments

I sometimes wonder how AI labs would make money if the internet didn't exist.

Maybe we'd have local models ...

I don't think today's AI labs would exist without the internet

Then my question is: what would AI labs do if the internet suddenly stopped existing?

They'd have to hire pentesters to run around, inserting pendrives into companies' computers. The computers would get hacked and press releases would brag about how many crimes their models committed. All to prove how dangerous the models are, in order to confirm high market valuation of these companies.

[–] amelius 17 hours ago

But how would they make money? (They _are_ making money as Anthropic's IPO filing recently showed)

[–] brookst 17 hours ago

What would software companies do if electricity stopped working?

[–] amelius 15 hours ago

If the energy grid was destroyed? Give every user a local generator.

The question is: if the internet was destroyed, would AI labs give us local AI?