This year has started on Alacriter's blog by a very short post about my doubts regarding success in AI1 I am afraid that many start-ups cannot remain independent because of their business model that imitates the success of a well-established firm that they cannot reproduce.2 They may also be excluded from competition because they rely on a tool, be it a framework or a software released by another player.3 Such a start-up lacks of savoir-faire. It can only succeed at becoming invisible if it lacks of money to sustain a fast growth. A fast growth enables a company to race successfully against competitors that cannot stand the pace set by the fastest growing start-up in the field. Hence, competition between start-ups is only loosely related to a new technology or a disruptive business model.
As 2023 is ending, It is time for me to reconsider my thoughts.
Seymour Cray had a savoir-faire based on deep knowledge and broad experience.4 A start-up may rely on a new technology patented by one of its partners who has an idea about a new thing that he wishes to produce. An investor may think about turning this new thing into a profitable business. At this stage, these two people share only ideas that cannot be the objects of intellectual property rights. Ideas are often disregarded since they have no economic value by themselves. People often focus on the output of what they see as a creative process to decide whether a person has been creative when doing something. It is a big issue in artificial intelligence because a machine can generate outputs without being creative. Output generation is often mistakenly seen as creativity. Creativity however is not a process even if it is possible to integrate some of its elements into a production process.
Let us take an example to see what practical issues this mistake causes.
A software is designed to operate the object of a patent. This software may be seen as non innovative mainly because it incorporates an AI framework developed by a Big Tech corporation and will soon be seen as obsolete since a new technology will enter the market. What do people, including investors, focus on? The framework developed by the Big Tech corporation. As far as the business model is concerned, what do many people focus on? Other players who have successfully implemented this model; the specificity of a start-up is downplayed. All the efforts that have been made to make something technically and commercially attractive are ruined; the start-up has lost its autonomy and cannot do anything effective on its own despite the product that it has developed because it depends on a bigger player who may be different over time, as technology evolves quickly. The fact that a large language model is released under an open-source licence does not make any difference: the start-up will probably be overshadowed by the largest contributor to a technology that it uses.
People have been focusing on intellectual property rights such as software licences and have disregarded possession. When you are buying something for your business, do you not care about what you will do with this thing? Consumables are designed to be used in a very precise manner, sometimes with a specific device such as a printer. Some devices, such as a hammer or a computer, are used as tools to produce something else. A hamster spinning a wheel is not using a tool. A computer may perform several tasks. You wish to possess the hammer or the computer to make the most out of it. Building a cupboard or coding a software requires some skill. When one buys a kit and mounts it, one does not have to be as skilled as a joiner who makes a bespoke piece of furniture. When you were thinking about these examples, do ownership or legal title crossed your mind? Possession introduces nuance in relationships involving property. The possessor of a thing has in principle to be its owner although the legal title does not always matter as much as one may think.5 What matters in cases of possession is what a person does with a thing, especially if one decides to use it in a very specific way, contrarily to the hamster that only knows how to spin his wheel. Specificity is a sign of savoir-faire underpinned by knowledge and experience. A software developer or entrepreneur often insists on his ability to integrate the latest technology and to apply the latest business model or marketing plan, it is thus difficult to perceive his savoir-faire; knowledge and experience do not seem to matter as much to some people as technology watch. People who behave like this spin the wheel for Big Tech corporations.
In brief, your savoir-faire effectively protects you against domination by Big Tech.
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The licensee who does not own a thing can be seen as a quasi possessor. Moreover, when the licensee uses software in accordance with the terms of a free or open software licence agreement, the issue is a purely theoretical one. ↩