Addiction Economics

Steve Berry warns that AI companies, like Uber before them, will raise prices once users are dependent, and credits China's Alibaba with releasing free open-source models like Qwen as a market check. He advises users to maintain self-hosted alternatives to avoid being locked in.

Addiction Economics Remember when Uber rides were cheap? VC subsidized your rides for a decade. Taxis died The plan was never to stay cheap. Published Aug 3, 2026 Author Steve Berry Remember when Uber rides were cheap? VC subsidized your rides for a decade. Taxis died The plan was never to stay cheap. The plan was to make you dependent. Once you've offloaded your writing, code, strategy, memory, thinking, workflows…They can raise the price. What are you going to do, learn to think again? The one thing keeping the market honest is, of all things, China. Alibaba ships Qwen for free. It runs on my Mac Studio. Every time Anthropic raises a price, an open model lands. The communists China’s communist, right? I have no idea anymore are the antitrust now. So here's the move: assume the cheap part ends. Keep one foot on something you can run yourself.