Open-source models and cheaper releases from Anthropic and OpenAI are helping business customers control costs while achieving as much or more from AI, speakers said at The Information’s AI Agenda Live conference in San Francisco on Wednesday. Replit CEO Amjad Masad said open-source competition is putting pricing pressure on AI labs. The event also featured interviews with leaders from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Nvidia, Blackstone, Replit and Atlassian, with discussions covering whether Google can catch up in the AI race, how companies are managing runaway AI costs and who will buy the debt being raised to finance data-center construction. Despite cost benefits and competitive pressure, many companies remain uncertain about the value generated by their AI spending.