Good Enough Jumps the Model Gap and Avoids AI Lock-in

The shiny new tech syndrome makes us focus on always wanting to work with the latest greatest AI models, almost by default. And switching away from one of those to something else is then tied to the question if it is as good or better than the frontier model you already use. I know companies who switch between various models based on task considerations, and use a router of some sort in between to seamlessly switch, but it will still be switching between frontier models. For me some of my use cases for AI cannot go forward in any acceptable way if it means that the context and data for them get send to the companies offering the models where it vanishes out of my control. It means that none of the closed leading models can be considered for them. This is not just the case for me personally. Any individual mindful of aspects like data protection, jurisdiction tools fall under, autonomy, extraction, transparency, costs and other externalities, and certainly any company anywhere that has…