Essays - Benedict Evans · Benedict Evans
articleinsightApple intelligence and AI maximalism
20 June 2024Strategy
Source excerpt
About Essays - Benedict EvansApple has showed a bunch of cool ideas for generative AI, but much more, it is pointing to most of the big questions and proposing a different answer - that LLMs are commodity infrastructure, not platforms or products.
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Apollo layer
What a founder can learn
Founder takeaway
Build your AI strategy on the possibility that large language models become interchangeable infrastructure. Put differentiation in the customer experience, proprietary context, workflow integration, distribution, or trust—not merely in access to a model.
Why it matters
If model capabilities and costs converge, products whose only advantage is the underlying AI may lose pricing power and defensibility. Founders need a clear view of which layer they can uniquely own and improve.
Put it to work
Ask: If every competitor had access to equally capable models tomorrow, what specific reason would customers still choose and keep using our product?