this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2026
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[–] prof_tincoa@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I need to make a Substack account so I never miss your essays.

You briefly touch upon the closed garden business model that western companies were going for before the open source AI models. I feel like it would've been worth to talk about how those companies were lobbying for regulations that would basically forbid open source models, paired with media fear mongering about them.

Also, any resources to learn more on the DotCom crash? I've been wanting to watch a video/read an essay about it, something <1h in duration or reading time.

[–] yogthos@lemmygrad.ml 6 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Thanks, and yeah the whole attempt to ban open models probably wouldn't have hurt to mention. Although, I don't think it's that impactful in the long term. Microsoft already tried doing a similar crusade to ban open source, and that failed. There's also a lot of use of open models by large US companies, so they would have a big incentive to fight such attempts. I think what's more likely is that they'd manage to pass laws banning access to models hosted in China, but if the whole mainframe era is transitory, that doesn't really matter either in the grand scheme of things.

And can recommend The Dot-Com Chancers Who Burst The Bubble gives a good overview, it has actual footage from 1999 and follows day traders in New York offices who were making thousands of dollars a week by clicking a mouse capturing the irrational exuberance of the era before the crash actually happened. It's about 20 minutes long, so a pretty quick watch. For a deeper dive, this podcast breaks down the crash and explains the dynamic with distorted incentives, stock-based compensation, and the transition from value to eyeballs as a metric.