The AI Honeymoon Is Over 💍💔

Remember November 2022?

ChatGPT drops. Free. Everybody gets it. Same day. Same model. A kid in Manila and a CEO in New York typing into the exact same magic box.

That was the honeymoon.

Now look around.

$200-a-month tiers. Limits that keep getting tighter. People swearing their AI got dumber overnight, and nobody can prove it either way.

And the best stuff? You don't get it anymore.

One lab's strongest model went to a small circle of "trusted organizations." Not you. Not me.

In June, access to that lab's newest top models was switched off for almost three weeks to comply with US export rules. Paying customers just sat there. Waiting.

We've seen this movie.

Uber: cheap rides until you sold your car. Then real prices.

Netflix: cheap until you killed cable. Then ads.

Cory Doctorow has a word for it. Enshittification. First they're good to you. Then they squeeze you. Then they squeeze everyone.

"Just run it locally." Sure. Drop a few thousand on hardware, babysit configs, and get the little cousin of the real thing.

Here's where this goes, and I hope I'm wrong:

Cheap AI for you. Real AI for them.

The next ChatGPT moment happens behind a door. You read about it later. In the news. Like everyone else.

Honeymoon's over.

When did you notice?