2026-04-02
AI is compute sold at margin
A musing on AI companies, packaged compute, and the value of human-review marketplaces.
Most AI companies are basically work by buying compute and reselling it at a margin. Intelligence is basically just “packaged compute.” It’s really not that different than traditional business, where you basically buy labor and resell it at a margin.
What I think might be more valuable is the interface between AI and human review. AKA, if you can build efficient human-review acquisition marketplaces, you can sell the potential end-product at a margin. This is akin to the business model of Outlier AI.