DieMachin4

Scam Altman and The Frontier Lab Playbook

  • AI
  • Business
  • Startups
  • OpenAI
  • Anthropic
Karp — DieMachin4

The Big Picture: Frontier AI Labs Scam Startups With Exclusive Access Partnership

Why it Matters:

There is a long list of companies that fell for the “exclusive access” trap to frontier models. Each and every one of them later having OpenAI or Anthropic replicate their product and offer it to the market for free. Having access to user data gives labs the ability to identify market trends and build future products accordingly. Enterprises are now wondering what is stopping them from doing this to us?

Go Deeper:

The deal is simple, your company gets exclusive access to frontier lab knowledge in exchange for user data.

Here’s a list of products crushed by OpenAI after inking access partnerships:

  • Jasper AI - copywriting
  • Harvey AI - Legal AI
  • Descript - AI video and Audio Editing
  • Speak - AI Language Learning
  • Mem - AI Note taking and Personal Knowledge

In Jasper AI’s case, they offered user data to OpenAI in exchange for exclusive access to GPT-3. Two years later OpenAI launched ChatGPT to the public with better copywriting capability, and for free. Jasper AI’s revenue subsequently collapsed by 54%.

As of May 2026, OpenAI now offers all Y Combinator startups $2M in API tokens for equity in their companies. For startups, this means access to a frontier model and an extended runway to product market fit.

Founders are basically pushed into the deal, investors want fast growth, and free access to the fastest models will get them there for a lot less.

Jason Calacanis from the All In Podcast put it bluntly.

The founders building on OpenAI’s API today are basically beta testing OpenAI’s products of tomorrow.

Anthropic has the same playbook, they literally had their CPO Mike Krieger sit on Figma’s board during their Code to Canvas partnership with Figma. When Mike Krieger resigned from Figma’s board, three days later Anthropic launched Claude Design…

When Figma’s CEO Dylan Field was asked what it was like working with Anthropic he famously responded with the exact phrase OpenAI’s board of directors had used when describing the firing of Sam Altman in 2023.

They were not consistently candid in their communications.

The Takeaway:

These founders cannot be trusted. The models are great, and are not going anywhere, but if we are not devising a model agnostic strategy, we will find ourselves feeding the machine that later eats us.

The open source models of today are great, the best ones are 80-95% as good as frontier lab models, but they cost a fraction of the price. Diversifying your AI strategy with a model agnostic approach will decrease your exposure to data capture while still providing productivity gains based in reality.

Businesses are catching on to the frontier lab playbook, and Alex Karp on CNBC voiced the industry’s frustration quite accurately.

Something has gone completely wrong. The basic view among enterprises in this country is ‘I’m going to chillax and waste my time with tokens, I’m going to get no value, and they’re going to get my IP.’