We're lucky to live in a universe with high-quality LLM APIs.

Here's an alternate universe that is totally possible to imagine.

OpenAI releases ChatGPT before they release any API.

They don't ever release an API because it would be "dangerous" …and also undermine their app's differentiation and power.

Later Anthropic comes along and does the same.

Neither feels compelled to release an API because both want to be an aggregator.

In that world, we'd have LLM-powered aggregator chatbots, but no way to use LLMs in other applications.

A recent report said that something like 75% of OpenAI's revenue comes from ChatGPT.

All it would have taken in this alternate universe is that OpenAI discovered the value of ChatGPT as an app before they released an API.

Instead we got the world where all of the major model creators have an API and can't remove it lest they cede it to competitors.

A wildly different world, and a far more encouraging one!