> Aren't they currently propped up by investor money?
Are Chinese model shops propped up by investor money? Is Google?
Open weights models are only 6 months behind SOTA. If new model development suddenly stopped, and today's SOTA models suddenly disappeared, we would still have access to capable agents.
By six months. Surely, non-SOTA models can eventually get not outdated. And your argument ignores 'new model development suddenly stopped' aspect. If it stops, there is nothing be to be outdated to..
Outdated compared to what? In your counterfactual, VC funded agents don't exist anymore, no?
Your argument, if I understand it correctly, is that they might somehow go away entirely when VC funding dries up, when more realistically they'll probably at most become twice as expensive or regress half a year in performance.
> Outdated compared to what? In your counterfactual, VC funded agents don't exist anymore, no?
Outdated compared to reality / humans, their knowledge cutoff is a year further behind every year they don't get updates. Humans continuously expands their knowledge, the models needs to keep up with that.
That's true, but the "AI bubble bursts" scenario is usually tied to Western investors getting essentially margin-called. If that happens, the CCP won't suddenly stop their investment; Chinese models will most likely continue developing.
Aren't they currently propped up by investor money?
What happens when the investors realize the scam that it is and stop investing or start investing less...