We're being sold our own skill set back to us in a gated service that was created only because we allowed them to steal our intellectual property.
Paying for an IDE, course or fancy tools was paying for complementary additions instead of the core.
Just look at the, often smug, messaging of these companies.
Your means of producing economic value are being centralized. The perceived and actual value of software products is being lowered, but some keep bragging about how a bot is doing their job.
I'd say it's definitely a big risk here. We've already seen evidence that these AI companies aren't making enough money with the tools they're offering at the moment, and there are already moves to increase the price for things like Claude or ChatGPT.
That's worrying for any company that depends on these things, and we can already see companies like Amazon and Microsoft freaking out about how much they're spending on AI services for employees to use.
And it's also why I'm hesitant to use them too much. Personally, I refuse to use subscriptions for anything unless absolutely necessary, and I'll always either pick an open source option or a one time purchase if it's available. I think that mentality might become more common in future when these services hike up the price.
I have kind of the same feeling that right now when subscription is quite cheap and companies spend VC money we get used to using those tools and basically replace manual coding. And I'm worying what will happen when OpenAI and Cluade realize that they need to each money and make profit.
I think the way to solve this are open weights models, but they are still pretty new and less powerful, from my experience, that SOTA models
> What are your philosophical thoughts on paying a subscription to get your work done?
I've paid for subscriptions to get work done for years. Educational materials, IDEs, source control tools, debugging tools, etc. I don't think the fact that you're paying for a subscription is the real potential worry here, right? It's more about the effects of using this particular tool.
Open Weights models are only about a year behind. Once a model is released its open weights forever. In a few years we will look back at 2026 era hardware as incredibly puny for AI workloads. Simultaneously, edge models will continue to get more expensive and more powerful.
Edge models, why would they get more expensive? Over time I imagine the edge models will get more capable and the edge hardware will remain lower cost, causing greater interest in edge computing with high performance models.
> What are your philosophical thoughts on paying a subscription to get your work done?
There have always been costs associated with tools, whether in money or time. A lot of businesses have been paying SaaS subscriptions for decades, and support contracts for longer. I don't understand how AI would be any different.
> What are your philosophical thoughts on paying a subscription to get your work done?
You are paying to get the work done much quicker. You are saving time, if you don't think your time has more value than the cost of AI agent then you should not pay for these tools.
> The new norm?
As long as companies are ok to pay for these tools and they believe that these do provide value, yes this is going to be the new norm.
> Lets see what local models can do?
My hope is that local models become as good as cloud models but the tricky part is all the AI companies would prefer to have big giant cloud models instead of innovating on optimization so that even small models can do good work.
> What are your philosophical thoughts on paying a subscription to get your work done?
You've always been doing that. Whether it's called "subscription" or not.
The "you" in this case is yourself, your team or your organization.
Your computer / laptop, the software it runs on, the mouse, keyboard, monitor, desk or whatever else you always had to pay = things you pay to do your work.
Even back in the day you had to pay for pen and paper. Consumables = API credit then?
Point being, what's the difference?
Just like you can code without AI you can also code without a chair. You can hold the laptop and try type.
Forget "philosophical thoughts", it is a business deal. What matters is the benefits, vs. the costs & risks, vs. what other coding-assist tools and suppliers might offer you.
We're being sold our own skill set back to us in a gated service that was created only because we allowed them to steal our intellectual property.
Paying for an IDE, course or fancy tools was paying for complementary additions instead of the core.
Just look at the, often smug, messaging of these companies. Your means of producing economic value are being centralized. The perceived and actual value of software products is being lowered, but some keep bragging about how a bot is doing their job.
Open-source models must win.
I'd say it's definitely a big risk here. We've already seen evidence that these AI companies aren't making enough money with the tools they're offering at the moment, and there are already moves to increase the price for things like Claude or ChatGPT.
That's worrying for any company that depends on these things, and we can already see companies like Amazon and Microsoft freaking out about how much they're spending on AI services for employees to use.
And it's also why I'm hesitant to use them too much. Personally, I refuse to use subscriptions for anything unless absolutely necessary, and I'll always either pick an open source option or a one time purchase if it's available. I think that mentality might become more common in future when these services hike up the price.
It is a trap. Who is telling you otherwise, us setting us into the trap.
> Hello HN, I use AI to code, not all the time but it gets work done
Man in the trap wonders if they are walking into a trap.
made me chuckle, thanks
I have kind of the same feeling that right now when subscription is quite cheap and companies spend VC money we get used to using those tools and basically replace manual coding. And I'm worying what will happen when OpenAI and Cluade realize that they need to each money and make profit.
I think the way to solve this are open weights models, but they are still pretty new and less powerful, from my experience, that SOTA models
> What are your philosophical thoughts on paying a subscription to get your work done?
I've paid for subscriptions to get work done for years. Educational materials, IDEs, source control tools, debugging tools, etc. I don't think the fact that you're paying for a subscription is the real potential worry here, right? It's more about the effects of using this particular tool.
Open Weights models are only about a year behind. Once a model is released its open weights forever. In a few years we will look back at 2026 era hardware as incredibly puny for AI workloads. Simultaneously, edge models will continue to get more expensive and more powerful.
Edge models, why would they get more expensive? Over time I imagine the edge models will get more capable and the edge hardware will remain lower cost, causing greater interest in edge computing with high performance models.
> What are your philosophical thoughts on paying a subscription to get your work done?
There have always been costs associated with tools, whether in money or time. A lot of businesses have been paying SaaS subscriptions for decades, and support contracts for longer. I don't understand how AI would be any different.
> What are your philosophical thoughts on paying a subscription to get your work done?
You are paying to get the work done much quicker. You are saving time, if you don't think your time has more value than the cost of AI agent then you should not pay for these tools.
> The new norm?
As long as companies are ok to pay for these tools and they believe that these do provide value, yes this is going to be the new norm.
> Lets see what local models can do?
My hope is that local models become as good as cloud models but the tricky part is all the AI companies would prefer to have big giant cloud models instead of innovating on optimization so that even small models can do good work.
> What are your philosophical thoughts on paying a subscription to get your work done?
You've always been doing that. Whether it's called "subscription" or not.
The "you" in this case is yourself, your team or your organization.
Your computer / laptop, the software it runs on, the mouse, keyboard, monitor, desk or whatever else you always had to pay = things you pay to do your work.
Even back in the day you had to pay for pen and paper. Consumables = API credit then?
Point being, what's the difference?
Just like you can code without AI you can also code without a chair. You can hold the laptop and try type.
> The new norm?
No
Forget "philosophical thoughts", it is a business deal. What matters is the benefits, vs. the costs & risks, vs. what other coding-assist tools and suppliers might offer you.
According to the wise Mr. Betteridge, the answer is No. Hope this helps!