> "Lick my boots, in person, and you can be one of the privileged few" is very much the behaviour of a Communist dictatorship, not a capitalist corporation
It's both, and more besides. Veblen goods are absolutely a thing in capitalism.
Not that "giving people access to GPT 4 APIs because they attended a conference" should be controversial enough to even get worked up about, let alone to compare to a dictatorship, but Google did much the same at developer conferences: I/O 2012 swag list included a Galaxy Nexus, a Nexus 7, a Nexus Q, and a Chromebox.
It's both, and more besides. Veblen goods are absolutely a thing in capitalism.
Not that "giving people access to GPT 4 APIs because they attended a conference" should be controversial enough to even get worked up about, let alone to compare to a dictatorship, but Google did much the same at developer conferences: I/O 2012 swag list included a Galaxy Nexus, a Nexus 7, a Nexus Q, and a Chromebox.