From Model Competition to Application
The past two years were about “who built the strongest model.” Now the narrative is shifting — model capabilities are becoming commoditized, with differentiation moving to applications built on top of models.
The Rise of Open Source
Meta’s Llama series, Alibaba’s Qwen, Mistral, DeepSeek — open-source models are closing the gap with closed-source frontiers. The real impact isn’t technical but commercial: it permanently lowers market prices.
Edge AI Accelerates
Apple Intelligence and Google’s Gemini Nano are doing the same thing: running AI locally on user devices. This isn’t just a technical challenge — it’s a product philosophy where privacy is the default mode, not an add-on feature.
Three Directions to Watch
- Agentification: LLMs evolving from answering questions to executing tasks
- Multimodal: Vision and audio understanding becoming standard
- AI Programming: Copilot, Cursor reshaping software development
This is personal observation, not investment advice.