Google Should Opensource Gemini
Gemini very much feels like a feature, not a product.
It’s clear to me that Google / DeepMind do not care about building the best-in-class LLM. Rather, Google is building a language model that can plug into Google’s various products including Search, Workspace, Android, Cloud, YouTube, Pixel, advertising and so on. Gemini very much feels like a feature, not a product.
I get the sense that Demis Hassabis - CEO of Google DeepMind - is 100% focused on AGI research, but not on developing the best commercial LLM. Anthropic in my view has the most focused mission - to build the best model to service Enterprise API users.
I know Demis sent the below chart around, but heavy users of Claude aren’t hanging around the Website, we’re in terminal.
If Google is simply trying to enhance its product family via Gemini such that it may justify price increases, it should consider making Gemini free, or make the $20 Gemini plan the usage equivalent of Anthropic’s $100 monthly plan. If you’re not trying to build the best model, don’t charge as if you were. Opensourcing Gemini could drive the adoption Google hopes to achieve.
Separately, some people have asked me what is Kilby? I think of Kilby as an intelligent AI assistant that has agentic capability. Kilby is both a general purpose AI assistant and an Investment Management-focused AI assistant given that Kilby has built some 40 tools that are Investment Management-specific, not to mention various skills and enhanced memory techniques that enable Kilby to remember user-specific context such as watchlists, holdings and more as it relates to Investment Professionals.
AI industry professionals consider Kilby a “harness”. Kilby does not directly compete with LLMs. Kilby’s intellectual property wraps around the LLM (Kilby is built around Anthropic’s Claude family of models and charges a small premium to Anthropic’s usage fees). Kilby is therefore additive to the LLM, making it more useful for specific use cases and industry verticals. Anthropic is a Kilby partner, not a competitor.