Simon Willison backs Apache 2.0 EmbeddingGemma 2 to prevent proprietary lock-in

Discourse · Hacker News · stat: Apache2.0

Simon Willison argues that Google's EmbeddingGemma 2 release highlights the risk of proprietary embedding models. Hosted-only models expose developers to sudden deprecations, forcing expensive recalculations of millions of stored vectors. Willison prefers paying for hosted open-weights models that allow self-hosting fallbacks under the Apache 2.0 license.

Open-weights embeddings protect developers from expensive vendor deprecation cycles Building on open-weights embedding models prevents future vendor deprecation from forcing costly recalculations of millions of stored database vectors.

Source