The gap has closed, open source will win
I've been trying the latest models from the frontier labs and honestly, after extensive testing I can not tell the difference between the best open source options. I think the differences are now marginal but the labs are doing heavy marketing to convince the public into paying more for tokens as they prepare to go public. Can't help but see the similarities between the dot com bubble and AI in terms of a very insular environment where the technology will survive but the business models may not. I've been building a cybersecurity network and we definitely know that even local AI models like Deepseek V4 flash do an excellent job and are really neck and neck with the best the frontier labs can provide. Will be interesting to see how this all turns out! Exciting time nonetheless.