Comment by zephen

Open source software helped to dramatically reduce the cost of paid software, because there is a now a minimum bar of functionality you have to produce in order to sell software.

And, in many cases, you had to produce that value yourself. GPL licensing lawsuits ensured this.

AI extracting value from software in such a way that the creators no longer can take the small scraps they were willing to live on seems likely to change this dynamic.

I expect no-source-available software (including shareware) to proliferate again, to the detriment of open source.