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I've said for some time that I care less about technologies than I do *business plans*. Here's a good example of why: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/dec/30/ai-tools-may-soon-manipulate-peoples-online-decision-making-say-researchers
I don't mind LLMs in principle: they're just a tool. But when the users are being sold to advertisers (especially when the companies are VC-backed), the incentives go way beyond “perverse” -- they become downright inhumane, focused on manipulating, even controlling, the users rather than informing them.
This is, BTW, why I'm such a passionate #Kagi enthusiast. Their technology is good, but their business plan -- subscriptions instead of advertisements, bootstrapped instead of VC-based -- matters way more. It means that they *have* to focus on what's good for their users, not what pleases the current whim of the stock market and the billionaires.
I dearly wish more companies would catch that clue…
@jducoeur Spot on, Justin! Thank you for the shout out and your support. We think this is a better model for a web that puts users and privacy first, without compromising on quality and sustainability.
@jducoeur @kagihq I like these aspects and I am a subscribed user too, but I wish they would prioritize their valuable time to solving bigger problems than implementing the AI tools. There is FastGPT, there is Assistant… I don‘t believe we need these things in a search engine. Just give me the results of my search term from your index and make it fast, cheap and that‘s all.
@jducoeur I hope you read this informative piece as this should give you second thoughts.
They're basically in a identity crisis and they can't be a privacy company and a AI company at the same time.
Eventually, they ultimately have to choose one or the other.