The state of LLMs right now seems analogous to the state of CAD software. There are free options available but they aren't as capable. The good part about this analogy is that the needs of the users aren't very dynamic -- if you are using a CAD software it is for design tasks. The interface may change, but the purpose doesn't. Because of this, the quality gap between free CAD packages and

LLMs are natural language models (what words are likely to come next given the context), not any sort of AGI. For that purpose, the gap between open and closed models is closing much faster in LLMs than CAD. I think LLMs will go the way of chess engines -- one of these models will become the Stockfish of LLMs and the proprietary models will end up being a waste of money and resources.