Tsinghua University Chair Professor Zhang Yaqin asks Tencent Chief AI Scientist Yao Shunyu a pointed question: DeepSeek, Tencent, Anthropic, OpenAI... What makes your users stick around?
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Yao Shunyu:
The moat lies more at the product level than the model level. I think there are two aspects. First, data and context. If you have private data and context that others don't, that could be the biggest moat.
Think about it: you can now use AI in WeChat. It doesn't have to be the smartest AI, but it knows your schedule, friends, and activities, which makes it very hard to replace. You could have a smarter model, but it doesn't know who you are.
Another moat is trust. Do you trust AI with your data and context, and trust it to take action?
Zhang Yaqin:
So you're saying Anthropic isn't worth two trillion dollars, or even one trillion. It'll become a commodity someday, right? Just kidding. Don't buy stocks based on my advice.
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Yao Shunyu:
The moat lies more at the product level than the model level. I think there are two aspects. First, data and context. If you have private data and context that others don't, that could be the biggest moat.
Think about it: you can now use AI in WeChat. It doesn't have to be the smartest AI, but it knows your schedule, friends, and activities, which makes it very hard to replace. You could have a smarter model, but it doesn't know who you are.
Another moat is trust. Do you trust AI with your data and context, and trust it to take action?
Zhang Yaqin:
So you're saying Anthropic isn't worth two trillion dollars, or even one trillion. It'll become a commodity someday, right? Just kidding. Don't buy stocks based on my advice.