You are betting on massive corporations having a change of heart and putting all their resources at the disposition of the public, for essentially free. Otherwise, AI will never be affordable in the sense that everyone could have free access to models that matter.
And I know that you said that self hosting is a possibility. But let’s be real here: public weight models are available because they pose no risk to the bottom line of the companies training them. There are zero competitive models trained by a non profit. But even if that wasn’t true, the current DRAM shortage is proof that these companies will never allow anyone to match them. Same goes for electricity and water.
Honestly, after all these years of witnessing big tech shitting all over us, I cannot understand where all these hopes come from. Would be endearing if it wasn’t so reckless.