Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Roman Leventov's avatar

I agree with the overall diagnosis that data lock-in are the default trajectory of AI app/agent platforms from BigTech.

However, I don't think policy proposals 1 and 2, "Open API access for major platforms" and "Memory as a portable service" are realistic.

I don't think open-banking regulation is a good analogy because banking is a very stable domain with a very stable set of basic abstractions that have existed for decades and are not going to change anytime soon: account, balance, transation, etc.

Whereas in AI apps/agents, the technological solutions and the very product abstractions are way too much in flux. Open API access to "chats" in a chatbot UI surface is probably manageable, but what about live conversations? Mobile screen share with AI? Agentic browser experience that takes actions on user's behalf? Desktop client/agent that records desktop screen and takes actions on user's behalf on the desktop? A completely integrated wearable device, like smart watch or glasses? And the combinations of all the above, creating flows of information between the user and the AI platform across devices and modes?

For memory/personalization, "memory MCP servers" are based on a paradigm that might be too limiting for the specific applications. Tomorrow's AI model architectures may favour data-efficient fine-tuning or even continual learning over RAG with distinct "memory pieces" as excerpts of text (providers may still support memory erasure, but only in a form of rewinding to a certain checkpoint in the past or forgetting everything that have happened in a single interaction, rather than browsing the list of memory excerpts and hand-picking them).

And even if RAG-based memory is still viable, it's just not realistic to me that big providers will allow users plugging third-party "memory APIs" inside their infrastructure. Managing such plug-ins is giant hassle from the networking perspective. If, in theory, AI platforms are faced with such regulation that would oblige them to enable users to record all memories in an external service, I bet the platforms would rather turn off memories/personalization in these countries altogether than hassle with these plug-ins.

Expand full comment
2 more comments...

No posts