The most powerful AI models are starting to look less like products and more like passes into a closed club.
The most powerful AI models are starting to look less like products and more like passes into a closed club.
Publicly, we hear: “safety,” “staged rollout,” “available soon.”
In practice: some people get GPT-5.6 now, while everyone else waits for permission.
That is a dangerous precedent.
Because the real divide won’t be between people who use AI and people who don’t.
It will be between those who got the best AI in time — and those who got it after the game had already started.