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Comment by breezeTrowel | Hacker News Reader

Yes and Facebook uses React and GraphQL. Meta AI uses PyTorch. Does that make them all products?

No, because they’re not exposed to users as features that they interact with. From a user perspective, they don’t ever see if it was made using those tools. They see the AI front and center.

I feel like thats a pretty strong distinction.

They see AI features front and center. They dont see the backend (which may or may not be running Llama). Same goes for React although, with React, the framework is what the end user directly interacts with. So, by that logic, React is more of a product than Llama.

Let me flip this around.

If you are a user, what feature is react giving you? Pre and post react, Facebook is largely the same to a user.

Pre and post graphql, Facebook is also the same.

To the user, neither of those are expressed as features.

Llama / Meta AI is a feature that changes how a user interacts with the system. When it was added, it’s noticeable. If it were to be taken away it would be noticeable. Nobody was boycotting react.

That is the difference between an implementation detail and a product/feature.

I'm not sure I understand this analogy. If Meta changes what underlying model they use, it'll still be called Meta AI. Having the criteria be "what new features does it offer to the users of the site" means that things like databases, servers, etc. are not products. This is objectively false.

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