The only moat left is money?

The author contends that the advent of AI has fundamentally altered the landscape of internet entrepreneurship, shifting the scarcity from creation to attention. With AI enabling the rapid, low-effort generation of numerous products, the market is saturated, and traditional marketing channels are less effective. This creates a difficult environment for new ventures without pre-existing reach or substantial capital, suggesting that money has become the ultimate, perhaps only, remaining 'moat'.

• AI-Driven Saturation: AI empowers individuals to rapidly develop and launch products, leading to an overwhelming influx of similar offerings.
• Shift in Scarcity: The ease of creation means that 'attention' is now the scarce and valuable resource, not the ability to build.
• Erosion of Traditional Moats: Skill and effort, once differentiators, are devalued as AI lowers the barrier to entry, making it harder for quality to stand out.
• The Power of Reach and Capital: Success increasingly depends on existing audience reach or the financial means to acquire it, effectively creating a high barrier for new market participants.
• The Author's Experiment: The author launched a niche, invite-only social network (Kith) with limited success, reinforcing their observation about the difficulty of organic growth without a head start or money.

Ultimately, the piece paints a picture of a digital economy where the playing field is heavily tilted towards those with pre-existing advantages, raising concerns that innovative new entrants are being systematically locked out unless they possess significant capital or an established audience.