Researchers from MIT and Georgia Tech analyzed detailed usage data from OpenRouter, capturing nearly 1% of the global AI inference market, and found that closed large language models retain roughly 80% of token volume despite costing six times more than open alternatives and offering only marginal performance edges. Frank Nagle of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Daniel Yue of Georgia Institute of Technology note that frontier open models now achieve parity with leading closed systems within months of release. Yet users persistently favor closed providers even when cheaper, higher-performing open options exist. Reallocating demand to these superior open models could slash average inference prices by over 70%, yielding an estimated $24.8 billion in consumer savings across 2025 alone. The findings highlight powerful non-technical barriers—switching costs, brand loyalty, and information gaps—that sustain closed-model dominance, positioning open models as a vast but under-tapped reservoir of efficiency and competitive freedom in the emerging AI economy.
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Xapo Bank is expanding access to the Xapo Byzantine BTC Credit Fund after securing $100 million in initial allocations, offering long-term bitcoin holders a regulated, yield-generating alternative to solo custody. Partnering with asset manager Hilbert Group, the fund lends deposited bitcoin through a fully institutional credit process overseen by an independent investment committee, maintaining a conservative risk profile. “The Xapo BTC Credit Fund fits nicely into our suite of BTC wealth products in delivering consistent yield, with a limited low risk appetite, for our long-term BTC holders,” said Tommy Doyle, global head of relationship management at Xapo Bank. The move reflects growing institutional confidence in bitcoin-native lending products following the 2022 sector shakeout, and the desire for large holders to develop cashflow from the bearer asset.
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In Uncharted Territories, Tomas Pueyo argues that superintelligent AI will deliver near-total abundance yet trigger a turbulent transition marked by mass unemployment, extreme inequality, and tax-flight by mobile “automators” who accelerate progress. To reach utopia without collapse, societies must preserve capitalist incentives for innovation while introducing Universal Basic Income to decouple consumption from production. “Your claim on scarce resources is equivalent to how much you contribute scarce resources to the world” breaks down when humans contribute nothing, Pueyo writes. Money will remain essential as a pricing signal guiding AI priorities amid lingering scarcities in energy, land, and materials. Forward-looking jurisdictions that keep taxes low on creators, tax high on land, and streamline entitlements into fair UBI will attract talent, fund redistribution, and smooth the path to a prosperous post-scarcity era where opportunity and comfort extend to all.
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A coalition of civil liberties organizations, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, and the Project on Government Oversight, has demanded that the Department of Homeland Security immediately shut down ICE’s Mobile Fortify handheld facial recognition program. The groups warn that agents use non-consensual biometric scans as conclusive proof of immigration status, overriding contrary evidence and risking wrongful detention or deportation of citizens. “ICE’s cavalier use of facial recognition will undoubtedly lead to wrongful detentions, deportations, or worse,” their letter states, noting at least one confirmed misidentification of a U.S. citizen while using the tool. They also condemned the absence of a new Privacy Impact Assessment and reports that the tool may target protesters exercising First Amendment rights, urging transparency and an immediate halt to preserve due process in public spaces.
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