Open-Source AI's Monetization Crisis: Can Anyone Compete with Chinese Pricing?

Robert Scoble argues that open-source AI faces an existential monetization challenge as Chinese labs undercut on price — a tension playing out in real time across inference markets.

Robert Scoble raised a blunt question this weekend: how does open-source AI make money when Chinese competitors are racing prices toward zero? As @Scobleizer put it, the core problem is that open-source models can't compete on price with state-subsidized Chinese labs willing to lose money on inference.

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