4 ms·

> The problem is that users pay $10 a month subscription fee for Copilot but, according to a source interviewed by the Journal, Microsoft lost an average of $20

> The problem is that users pay $10 a month subscription fee for Copilot but, according to a source interviewed by the Journal, Microsoft lost an average of $20 per user during the first few months of this year. Some users cost the company an average loss of over $80 per month, the source told the paper.

xxpor 3y ago
$90 of inference time a month is... a lot. Are people just generating code in vscode to cause calls to copilot or something?
- Kiro 3y ago
  Copilot sends huge prompts continuously since it includes adjacent files for context. That's why it's so good at "figuring out" your own esoteric code.
reader5000 3y ago
I'm not sure why they don't charge per usage.
- matthewdgreen 3y ago
  Because presumably the goal of copilot is not to make substantial amounts of money at this time, but instead to produce tons of training data for the tools that come after (and are significantly more profitable, because they reduce the amount of money firms spend on software developers.)
lamontcg 3y ago
Yeah, so far this looks like home assistants which are all money-losing. There isn't yet a killer app, like google ads/search, which is sticky and pervasive and where an effective monopoly emerges.
- xnx 3y ago
  Home assistants have no per-month cost to the customer, so introducing one would be a deal breaker for many users. Copilot is already a paid service, so it's easier to increase the prices if needed. The ongoing compute costs will also drop in a Moore's Law-like way
xxpor 3y ago
FWIW Nat Friedman says this is just completely false. https://twitter.com/natfriedman/status/1712140497127342404 https://twitter.com/natfriedman/status/1712140497127342404
- object-a 3y ago
  Is that true for the newer versions they’ve launched, since he left GitHub?
nicksrose7224 3y ago
this is not a strong counter argument. Costs will come down. When there is insanely high demand for a product (like there is here) and the thing makes people more productive, costs always come down due to pure incentives to make it cheaper. This happened with electricity, the car, air travel, solar power, etc etc

xxpor 3y ago

$90 of inference time a month is... a lot. Are people just generating code in vscode to cause calls to copilot or something?

Kiro 3y ago
Copilot sends huge prompts continuously since it includes adjacent files for context. That's why it's so good at "figuring out" your own esoteric code.

reader5000 3y ago

I'm not sure why they don't charge per usage.

matthewdgreen 3y ago
Because presumably the goal of copilot is not to make substantial amounts of money at this time, but instead to produce tons of training data for the tools that come after (and are significantly more profitable, because they reduce the amount of money firms spend on software developers.)

lamontcg 3y ago

Yeah, so far this looks like home assistants which are all money-losing. There isn't yet a killer app, like google ads/search, which is sticky and pervasive and where an effective monopoly emerges.

xnx 3y ago
Home assistants have no per-month cost to the customer, so introducing one would be a deal breaker for many users. Copilot is already a paid service, so it's easier to increase the prices if needed. The ongoing compute costs will also drop in a Moore's Law-like way

xxpor 3y ago

FWIW Nat Friedman says this is just completely false. https://twitter.com/natfriedman/status/1712140497127342404 https://twitter.com/natfriedman/status/1712140497127342404

object-a 3y ago
Is that true for the newer versions they’ve launched, since he left GitHub?

nicksrose7224 3y ago

this is not a strong counter argument. Costs will come down. When there is insanely high demand for a product (like there is here) and the thing makes people more productive, costs always come down due to pure incentives to make it cheaper. This happened with electricity, the car, air travel, solar power, etc etc