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Anthropic and OpenAI are consolidating a closed-model duopoly that concentrates power and pricing leverage, and open weight models are the only real counterweight available to startups, schools, and enterprises.

The authors argue Anthropic and OpenAI's closed models are consolidating market power and pricing leverage, leaving open weight AI as the only viable alternative for smaller players. ✦ AI generated

Kevin Xu (Interconnected, co-author) · Interconnects · 2026-06-19 · original ↗

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The duopoly of Anthropic and OpenAI are rapidly concentrating power between them with their closed, proprietary models. Anthropic, in particular, has flexed its monopolistic muscle recently by reducing its most advanced model's capability when it is being used to improve someone else's model. While the capabilities of their models are undeniable, so are their price tags and market concentration.

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▦ Anthropic ▦ OpenAI

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In practice · 1

Open weights are now Poolside's default approach, and the company will keep building toward the frontier while releasing increasingly capable models openly.Poolside · Interconnects · conf 60%

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supports → Washington's current wave of AI regulatory activity risks spilling over into regulating or banning open source AI, and that would be a grave mistake.Kevin Xu (Interconnected, co-author) · Interconnects supports → Trying to slow or ban the open model ecosystem is futile, unsafe, and anti-freedom, because it would concentrate AI development among a select few and cut off outsiders' ability to adopt the technology.the author · Interconnects