I think you're overlooking a lot of what didn't make it. So many local ISPs, random delivery services, and online stores from that era are gone. They used the internet, even offered it, but often burned through capital without having anything to show for it.
If you look at job listings right now, there's a ton of "we apply an LLM to your business use case" type startups that really don't have good products or fundamentals, but that are getting a lot of funding because "AI".
They use LLMs, often have flashy demos, but can't keep things aligned and struggle to keep the models on task. E.g. they have burned a ton of capital and don't have a lot to show for it.
The ones that went all-in on vibe coding are even worse off.
If those startups die, the big inference providers lose a lot of customers.
That is my point. A lot of the early dot com companies didn't survive. Just because AI has value does not mean there has not been over investment or investment in the wrong places.
[–] NBJack 4 hours ago
[–] solid_fuel 3 hours ago
They use LLMs, often have flashy demos, but can't keep things aligned and struggle to keep the models on task. E.g. they have burned a ton of capital and don't have a lot to show for it.
The ones that went all-in on vibe coding are even worse off.
If those startups die, the big inference providers lose a lot of customers.
[–] etempleton 3 hours ago