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> all for free because that's how cheap it is for them to run. No, these AI companies are burning through huge amounts of cash to keep the thing running. They'

by rr808 2y ago

> all for free because that's how cheap it is for them to run. No, these AI companies are burning through huge amounts of cash to keep the thing running. They're competing for market share - the real question is will anyone ever pay for this? I'm not convinced they will.

calebkaiser 2y ago
The question of "will people pay" is answered--OpenAI alone is at something like $4 billion in ARR. There are also smaller players (relatively) with impressive revenue, many of whom are profitable. There are plenty of open questions in the AI space around unit economics, defensibility, regulatory risks, and more. "Will people pay for this" isn't one of them.
- season2episode3 2y ago
  As someone who loves OpenAI’s products, I still have to say that if you’re paying $200/month for this stuff then you’ve been taken for a ride.
  - calebkaiser 2y ago
    Yeah, I'm skeptical about the price point of that particular product as well.
  - jdee 2y ago
    Honestly, I've not coded in 5+ years ( RoR ) and a project I'm involved with needed a few of days worth of TLC. A combination of Cursor, Warp and OAI Pro has delivered the results with no sweat at all. Upgrade of Ruby 2 to 3.7, a move to jsbundling-rails and cssbundling-rails, upgrade Yarn and an all-new pipeline. It's not trivial stuff for a production app with paying customers. The obvious crutch of this new AI stack reduced go-live time from 3 weeks to 3 days. Well worth the cost IMHO.
rchaud 2y ago
> They're competing for market share - the real question is will anyone ever pay for this? The leadership of every 'AI' company will be looking to go public and cash out well before this question ever has to be answered. At this point, we all know the deal. Once they're publicly traded, the quality of the product goes to crap while fees get ratcheted up every which way.
- jaggs 2y ago
  That's when the 'enshitification' engine kicks in. Pop up ads on every result page etc. It's not going to be pretty.

by rr808 2y ago

calebkaiser 2y ago

The question of "will people pay" is answered--OpenAI alone is at something like $4 billion in ARR. There are also smaller players (relatively) with impressive revenue, many of whom are profitable. There are plenty of open questions in the AI space around unit economics, defensibility, regulatory risks, and more. "Will people pay for this" isn't one of them.

season2episode3 2y ago
As someone who loves OpenAI’s products, I still have to say that if you’re paying $200/month for this stuff then you’ve been taken for a ride.
- calebkaiser 2y ago
  Yeah, I'm skeptical about the price point of that particular product as well.
- jdee 2y ago
  Honestly, I've not coded in 5+ years ( RoR ) and a project I'm involved with needed a few of days worth of TLC. A combination of Cursor, Warp and OAI Pro has delivered the results with no sweat at all. Upgrade of Ruby 2 to 3.7, a move to jsbundling-rails and cssbundling-rails, upgrade Yarn and an all-new pipeline. It's not trivial stuff for a production app with paying customers. The obvious crutch of this new AI stack reduced go-live time from 3 weeks to 3 days. Well worth the cost IMHO.

rchaud 2y ago

> They're competing for market share - the real question is will anyone ever pay for this? The leadership of every 'AI' company will be looking to go public and cash out well before this question ever has to be answered. At this point, we all know the deal. Once they're publicly traded, the quality of the product goes to crap while fees get ratcheted up every which way.

jaggs 2y ago
That's when the 'enshitification' engine kicks in. Pop up ads on every result page etc. It's not going to be pretty.