Title says it all. Why spend so much effort finetuning and serving models locally when any closed-source model will do the same for cheaper in the long run. Is it a philosophical argument? (As in freedom vs free beer) Or are there practical cases where a local model does better.
Where I’m coming from is the requirement of a copilot, primarily for code but maybe for automating personal tasks as well, and wondering whether to put down the $20/mo for GPT4 or roll out my own personal assistant and run it locally (have an M2 max, compute wouldn’t be a huge issue)
It’s not just philosophical. When you have a technology that holds power to change the world, it should either be destroyed or given into everyone’s hands so that people can adapt and be at easy with it. Otherwise the person inventing the technology will rule the world. Or in today’s world, will influence politics, will have support from powerful people, will attract wealth, and will make mistakes which could destroy he world.
So it’s not just about morals, it’s about survival.