I think everyone should realize the following realities of the LLM market
1. For sub-SOTA LLM's, distribution/marketing is more important than having a proprietary lock on capabilities. Open sourcing is a benefit for the firm, distincct from goodwill
2. For SOTA LLM's, keeping it closed and proprietary is the strategic play
If grok were SOTA Elon never would have open sourced it. It's not even SOTA within XAI. This is a marketing play to win public sentiment against OpenAI.
I recall Elon saying something like this in an interview so I think it’s less of a deceptive take then perhaps your comment suggest.
I think he said something like proprietary AI tech is going to be one year to 18 months ahead of where open source tech is which will follow on like one year to 18 months later.
Suggesting that he’s aware of this dynamic and he’s not trying to conceal or misrepresent that.
In other words, perhaps this was SOTA one year to two years ago?
Which is correct. The point I'm going for is not against Elon but against his obedient fans and knee-jerk OpenAI haters who claim that they should, by natural obligation, do the "right thing" and open source all their models, and Elon open sourcing grok is him "leading by example" and being the hero that OpenAI can't.
Interesting. That point didn't come across in your original comment. I recommend you state it next time at the end. Often times stuff that seems obvious to us / yourself / people who know about something -- can go unstated in stuff you say that otherwise references specific points at hand -- and omits these general, but enlightening/useful perspectives/priors, which it would be good to share.
This is not only for you specifically just a general reminder for all of us including me.
I think that's true though my original comment I feel was sufficient in its claim and implicit assumptions.
Basically I feel people's feelings about Elon vary a lot but are anchored by 3 general categories.
> 1. Elon Musk is a messianic savior who is perfectly selfless and always does the right thing. Every business decision he makes is for the maximal good of humanity
> 2. Elon Musk is a typical CEO who does typical CEO things, serving his own interests, except he's better at marketing his own image and is much more outspoken
> 3. Elon Musk is an irredeemable evil who always does objectively wrong things
My first comment was implicitly addressed to people in the 1 camp trying to bring them into the 2 camp (which is where I am).
Alright, it just didn't come across for me, haha! :) I guess sometimes those implicit assumptions really are too implicit! I think it's good to err on the side of expressing them, because you can't assume someone else thinks the same way you do. That's what I've learned anyway. Hahahaha! :)
Reading your comment again with your explanation it is clear that's what you're doing.
Although, regarding your desires to present a balanced view and to persuade, I have an idea. It probably sounds like I have no idea what I'm talking about, but I think your OG comment would perhaps benefit from sounding a little bit more friendly toward Elon (not to the messianic savior level haha), but the way it sounds to me is Elon is being deceptive here and presenting it as goodwill when it's not.
However, I think the truth is there's a little bit of both, right? There's good will but it's also strategic. I get if you don't think so, tho, no worries! Haha! :)
Your OG comment sounds to me like Elon's just Machiavellian, and I get where you're coming from to remind the people who think he's a savior, but if you're point is not to go "against Elon" as you said, it might be good to acknowledge the good that he does.
At least, that way -- whether or not you believe that acknowledgment -- if you hope to bring over people who think that way, you'll probably need to appeal to how they think, rather than just dose them with the truth you see, because then they'll shut it out, if there's nothing they can relate to.
Although, if I haven't convinced you even a bit here, then maybe you shouldn't listen to me about persuasion because I guess I don't know how to do this myself. At least not effectively, or here with you. Haha!:) But if you do feel a little bit convinced then maybe consider it for next time to help your persuading people back to a more balanced view? :)
But then, there's the question of if such a thing is even possible. If people have an particular view, it could be challenging to change it, as confirmation bias means you'll ignore evidence even when it expands your worldview.
Hahaha! :) This was a funny conversation. I think we somehow skirted around the important point tho that OpenAI could in fact open source some of its older models, could it not? Musk is a typical CEO who does typical CEO things, serving his own interests, except he's better at marketing his own image and is much more outspoken, but there might also be a bit of truth to what the fanboys say about OpenAI in that it seems they do have some room to "open source" their non-SOTA stuff, or what am I missing?
1. For sub-SOTA LLM's, distribution/marketing is more important than having a proprietary lock on capabilities. Open sourcing is a benefit for the firm, distincct from goodwill
2. For SOTA LLM's, keeping it closed and proprietary is the strategic play
If grok were SOTA Elon never would have open sourced it. It's not even SOTA within XAI. This is a marketing play to win public sentiment against OpenAI.