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Comment by simianwords | Hacker News Reader

> The demo uses Claude Haiku rather than newer models like Opus or Fable. This is because I'm assuming that shopping agents of the future won't use newer, more expensive models, even though they're more reliable and secure. I suspect it'll come down to cutting costs, and using a cheaper model is one of the easiest ways to save money.

Stopped reading here. Author has little idea of the industry.

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I think it's more that you don't understand just how poor many people are. Most people will go for cheaper models (assuming they even know what a model is to begin with) just because the more expensive ones are ones they literally can't afford because all of their money is spent on bills and necessities. Supposedly the cost of using models will just keep falling forever but I have my doubts (since that's not exactly how an economy actually works, nothing is truly free unless the government is paying for the entire thing). If we take the mindset of the technical illiterate average person, they will go for whatever sounds the best (and whatever costs the least) because gas is $5-$7 per gallon, the price of everything continues to rise, and on and on. I think it's probably smart not to be so dismissive of the struggles of the super-majority of people who are barely able to survive because money is in fact an obstacle, and the only way you'd get them to use a mode like GPT-6 Sol or Astra is by making it pretty much cost nothing, and that isn't how the real world works: someone is always paying for it, and the question is who.

The poor are not wasting money on agents. They will just go to the store and buy a coat.

This doesn't actually change what I said. The imagined future is that people just use agents for shopping. Assuming the capitalistic economy we have constructed remains (and I've little reason to think it will vanish anytime soon), poor people, or people with low incomes, are certainly not going to be using high-end or even midrange models/agent providers. They will go for whatever sounds the best and which is the cheapest, regardless of it's quality or how gullible it is. So attempts like tfa to figure this problem out now are very useful indeed.

a future cheap agent will outperform a current frontier agent

> Stopped reading here. Author has little idea of the industry.

Which industry? The shopping affiliate industry feels just like the kind of industry to cut any corners it can to make a few more cents per transaction so they can offer "free" shopping agents and make their money off the commissions.

Author is "F-Secure's Head of Threat Intelligence".

I think it just shows very sad state of the industry.

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