My AI and Your AI

Recently, I found myself looking to hire freelancer for a simple task. The job wasn’t difficult or urgent, but it was just the type of thing that wouldn’t be well-suited for an LLM.

I’ve been using sites like Fiverr and Upwork for the past seven years, and they've become my go-to platforms for freelance work. From hiring a French-native to help with my university coursework to getting custom self-portraits made, they’ve been a mainstay. It's convenient and often affordable way to connect skill with need.

I hadn't been on Fiverr for a while, and when I returned, I was surprised to see how much the site had been overtaken by AI. Job titles, descriptions, bios— every message sent between me and freelancers—had been AI-generated.

It makes sense. I would probably do the same (maybe a little less overtly). For freelancers whose native language isn’t English, it’s almost a given. But as I received a message from a freelancer that was clearly AI-generated, I found myself pasting it into my own chosen LLM along with my raw thoughts, to get a quick, professional response. I also get all the other benefits of an LLM like adding context or catching any nuance I failed to mention.

As I wrapped up that exchange, it got me thinking about the future—about how all of this will evolve into AI talking to AI on our behalf.

While the world isn't always great, one thing I’ve always appreciated is equality in consumer technology. It’s a quiet equality. One that doesn’t often get a lot of attention. The same consumer electronics available to me are the same ones available to billionaires. The same MacBook or GPU in my computer is the same one someone with 1,000 times my net worth is using.

That level of equality in consumer tech is unparalleled. It is rare to find something so important that is available to almost everyone on the same terms. It's not something you see in many other industries, where typically access to the best, most vital tools are reserved to those with the largest bankrolls. Technology has been a great equalizer.

But as we stand on the edge of the next frontier of technological innovation, I can't help but wonder if that equality will stand. Will there be an emerging gap in access to LLMs? Will some models become so costly that they’re only available to a certain few? Or maybe, the divide won’t be about cost at all—perhaps something else will determine who gets access to which model.

If model access becomes unequal, we may find ourselves in a world where only a few have access to the tools to shape the future.

Will your AI be smarter than mine? Or will mine outwit yours? And what happens when the models start competing with each other, leaving us as bystanders in a game we no longer control?