Why would OpenAI give this away for free? Is it to disrupt competition by setting a floor at the lower end of the market and make it harder for new competition to emerge while still retaining mind share?
No. It's because large models have leveled off and commodified. They are all trending towards the same capabilities, and openai isn't really a leader. They have the most popular interface, but it really isn't very good. The future is the edge, the future is smaller, more efficient models. They are trying to define and delineate a niche that needs datacenters where they can achieve rents.
