I agree that OpenAI could and most likely will execute quite well on ads.

What I'm uncertain about is how much the ability of Google to set defaults matters.

Setting Gemini as the "AI" on phones, automatically integrated with all "daily" services could matter a lot. They have a platform ready to go and are pushing hard to make themselves really attractive. All while being very profitable.

Apple on the other hand will be in a strong position to negotiate a good deal with competitors to OAI and my suspicion is that "good enough AI" is all most people need.

And of course there is the financial reality that OpenAI does not only need profits, but profits on an enormous scale. Just being successful would mean they missed the mark.

My personal guess is that Microsoft will fully buy them at some point in the future but I'm not, confidence enough to bet any money on it.

Yeah "all bids for government contracts must" is a really powerful sword.

It pushes money into the market, creates skills and business and, crucially can look beyond quarterly profits (for better or worse).

Yes! We must mandate that all loyal citizens have to use Arch Linux and Vim. Severe punishment and long prison terms for any other distro or text editor.

Patents can hold up economic development of certain industries much more than copyright. Which can have huge implications if they are on fundamentals.

For example commercial 3D printing (using FDM) was likely significantly stalled until the relevant patent expired.

Culture is of course important but there can always be new successful Alternatives.

At least the last few times I had those they were announced as "accident with injuries along the tracks" or "People on the track".

It's usually reported (briefly) in the local news.

If it bundles them together into one parcel (while staying under 150€) I read the announcement such that the entire package would get taxed by 3€.

If I recall correctly some of the goals of this are

- to relieve the load on the custom s enforcement agencies by motivating sellers to import and declare goods in bulk.

- to make sure there is someone domestic who is legally responsible for liabilities and other regulations (e.g. for waste and EC compliance). It's easier to force a big company to do something than a 2 person shop in China. There are already laws in the book where the marketplace becomes liable if the actual seller cannot be found.

I believe AliExpress bulk imports much of its wares to EU warehouses already (at least popular stuff). It's not possible for everything but for popular items it's happening more and more frequently.

Yeah I'm mostly confused about their lack of communication.

If they want to do that then, as every corporate "open source", they are free to do so but why not communicate that at least in the release post?

Any potential free user who would consider going paid will now be starting off their relationship negatively.

Really weird strategy.

It's a tragedy, though no surprise, that this is required

I guess "the regulations will continue until product management improves".

We already have stationary or wheeled/tracked "killer cyborgs" that can easily eeeh terminate anything within their reach and it seems like bipedals are well on their way.

The much greater challenge faced by Disney and Co is making "killer cyborgs" child save and cost effective.

Then they will break and wear off quite fast I imagine.

Take a look at industrial cobots (not a typo). They feature rounded corners, have very little to no "finger pinchy areas" and lots of force feedback sensors.

Despite that they still require trained (adult) personal and move very slowly when actually interacting with humans.

That's the price for them being sturdy and precise.

Also this thing can probably be tipped over pretty easily endangering itself or guests.

The character shape lends itself to a low center of gravity but the fluidity of the motion implies light weight or strong motors.

An angsty kid giving Olaf a good shove or kick could be expensive and fast moving robotics are either dangerous or brittle

Everything about this chassis strongly suggests no guest touching will be allowed.

In addition to the points you've highlighted, the examples in the video and the images of the character strongly suggest it'll be a soft outer shell. I'd be more worried about a kid shoving it finding themselves caught by an internal pinch-point than damage to the robot.