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Transformative technologies usually follow a top-down diffusion path: originating in government or military contexts, passing through corporations, and eventually reaching individuals. This progression feels intuitive, new and powerful technologies are usually scarce, capital-intensive, and their use requires specialized technical expertise in the early stages. Interestingly, LLMs display a dramatic reversal of this pattern - they generate disproportionate benefit for regular people, while their impact is a lot more muted and lagging in corporations and governments.
But at least at this moment in time, we find ourselves in a unique and unprecedented situation in the history of technology. If you go back through various sci-fi you'll see that very few would have predicted that the AI revolution would feature this progression. It was supposed to be a top secret government megabrain project wielded by the generals, not ChatGPT appearing basically overnight and for free on a device already in everyone's pocket. Remember that William Gibson quote "The future is already here, it's just not evenly distributed"? Surprise - the future is already here, and it is shockingly distributed. Power to the people. Personally, I love it.
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