We’re in a unique moment for AI companies building their own foundation model.
First, there is a whole generation of industry veterans who made their name at major tech companies and are now going solo. You also have legendary researchers with immense experience but ambiguous commercial aspirations. There’s a clear chance that at least some of these new labs will become OpenAI-sized behemoths, but there’s also room for them to putter around doing interesting research without worrying too much about commercialization.
The end result? It’s getting hard to tell who is actually trying to make money.
To make things simpler, I’m proposing a kind of sliding scale for any company making a foundation model. It’s a five-level scale where it doesn’t matter if you’re actually making money – only if you’re trying to. The idea here is to measure ambition, not success.
Think of it in these terms:
Level 5 : We are already making millions of dollars every day, thank you very much.
: We are already making millions of dollars every day, thank you very much. Level 4: We have a detailed multi-stage plan to become the richest human beings on Earth.
We have a detailed multi-stage plan to become the richest human beings on Earth. Level 3: We have many promising product ideas, which will be revealed in the fullness of time.
We have many promising product ideas, which will be revealed in the fullness of time. Level 2: We have the outlines of a concept of a plan .
We have the outlines of a concept of a plan Level 1: True wealth is when you love yourself.
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