I haven't tried Codex yet, but I for my tasks GPT-5.5 may correctly point to a proper direction but its code feels a bit weird. Opus 4.8 is way better in coding, and actually it's the only one who could catch very very sophisticated bug in a large codebase (I tried different models including GPT-5.5 and DeepSeek). Interestingly Gemma 4 under opencode running locally performs not bad at all, it's far yet from DeepSeek level, but it manages to understand tools quite well, and code quality is pretty good. So, for simple coding projects I can say local models already won. It's amazing how smart open models of desktop size have become today. I mean it's quite plausible to manage small codebase today relying on only open tools and local models, you don't need any subscription to produce high quality code, but yes I assume you already experienced and know what you're doing :)
Creating AI monopolies is more dangerous. How much better would it be for environment and privacy if instead of concentrating AI power in few data centers it's distributed across all compute and memory devices? If just few players control the narrative and the infrastructure it's a single point of failure or worse a single point of control. Bad for democracy, society, pushes inequality.
Do you have a guess why your code is so much slower than torch? I didn't look, but there must be no reason to have 2x slower code esp. for a simple grid of FMAs.
This doesn't look like too expensive if you compare it with Switzerland or with Germany assuming similar annual income. In Switzerland unlike in US your children stay on your plan until they turn 18, not 26 like in US. In both Germany and Switzerland, health insurance is mandatory and not employer-based - so you cannot simply say "no". In fact, in Germany you pay much more than in US as a share of your income, especially if your income is at least like 30% more than a national median: 1000+ EUR is a minimum per person per month (probably higher today). It doesn't cover dental care - you will pay in full - that's why many people travel to Turkey, or Eastern Europe, or to Baltic countries - just to take some dental care - which is extremely expensive in any German speaking country - we are talking about multiple months of your income after taxes.
No additional tax is needed, instead just do fork them once they reached certain level. So, basically split each company once it overgrowth certain level of its revenue. This will allow more automation split more equally among more people. Basically, strong AI is a "one-man company" dream. Just do whatever needed to allow equal access to AI by every member of your society, and make founding new businesses quick and easy.
Democracy, personal freedoms, and rule of law are things that matter, but I am afraid we cannot get back to them quickly without significant efforts. We need first to get back to sanity. In authoritarian society AI is a tool of control, do we want it to be like that?
What's the purpose to have access to smart assistants if it doesn't result in improving your basic needs, not improving your quality of life? Who is spending now? Only high income households, while majority is struggling with high utility bills and grocery prices - very basic needs.
How about the act of buying itself? Here where I live, you need to pay 12% on top of the home price simply for taxes and notary service. IMO it's one of the biggest obstacles and why most Swiss people prefer to rent.
I know some friends of mine stopped using it because it requires login, and it's quicker to Google or go to Wiki for a quick answer. Most people have a laptop at work, home devices, phone, etc. So it's just you ve tried it say on your laptop few times than you are on a tablet etc so why do you need all that mess with entering email, remembering password, for what, for just a quick asking and getting answer.