AI is Gold Rush, but Maybe Not Wild West

Though both the internet and artificial intelligence are likely to wind up being categorized as general-purpose technologies, the early structure of the markets arguably is different. 

The early internet was a “Wild West” dominated by startups with unclear revenue models, facing low barriers to entry and few real gatekeepers. 

In contrast, the early AI market (especially generative AI) features more leadership by established firms with relatively clear ideas about possible revenue models, higher barriers to entry because of the costs of building models and training them, suggesting gatekeepers could emerge faster. 

Aspect	Early Internet	Early Generative AI Market
Leadership by startups or established Firms	Startups dominated innovation. Lower costs and agility gave them an edge.	Established firms with data and resources are playing a major role alongside AI startups.
Revenue Models	Unclear initially. Ads and e-commerce emerged.	Virtually every existing user experience, application and use case can be AI-enabled. Subscriptions, premium products and commerce and advertising all are conceivable..
Barriers to Entry	Relatively low, as virtual products had low production costs and low geographic barriers	Higher barriers. Requires access to large data troves, substantial computing power
Gatekeeper Power	Limited. Permissionless innovation was the model.	Tech giants such as Google, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft (and Apple, despite some current thinking) hold assets, with clear paths to monetize search, commerce, social media, enterprise and consumer software and devices.

And despite some early fears about monetization, digital infrastructure suppliers already are showing substantial revenue generation. App providers are rushing to add generative AI features to all existing products, with monetization based on potential to gain market share; create new premium products with AI features for additional costs; subscriptions; higher-value ad placement, operating cost and customer interaction advantages. 

All this suggests generative AI will find a faster and clearer road to monetized deployment. The AI market is less "Wild West" but still a "Gold Rush."