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Would you say that Google admitted that not enough people will pay for Youtube premium to be a profitable business so they had to get into ads?

landedgentry 11mo ago
Youtube premium is not claiming AGI to justify a certain valuation.
- aurareturn 11mo ago
  I don’t think OpenAI has claimed they have AGI?
  - kgwgk 11mo ago
    Maybe not having it but being really close to that and knowing how to build it. "We are now confident we know how to build AGI as we have traditionally understood it. We believe that, in 2025, we may see the first AI agents “join the workforce” and materially change the output of companies."
    - aurareturn 11mo ago
      Hasn't the happened? Plenty of companies are working and experimenting with agents.
      - johnnyanmac 11mo ago
        I'm still waiting for the "materially change the output of companies" part.
  - pier25 11mo ago
    Sam Altman said in 2024 that AGI could happen as soon as 2025. https://dianawolftorres.substack.com/p/is-agi-just-around-the-corner-sam https://dianawolftorres.substack.com/p/is-agi-just-around-th... And that's not his only bold claim about AGI.
kgwgk 11mo ago
I doubt anyone would say that given that they got into ads years before giving people the option to pay.
- aurareturn 11mo ago
  But the same logic applies. Youtube is not profitable without ads and would shut down.
  - array_key_first 11mo ago
    Yeah, probably, but then again YouTube is entertainment and Google never claimed to be fixing the world and whatever. Also they're not sucking up hundreds of billions of dollars.
  - manojlds 11mo ago
    If ChatGPT and AI is "just" supposed to be Youtube, sure. ChatGPT wasn't supposed to be just YouTube.
varenc 11mo ago
My personal theory: Youtube ads exist as just a punishment to beat you into paying for premium. As in, while the ads make some money, their primary purpose is to motivate you to pay. And that a subscriber generates meaningful more revenue than the ads sales of a non-subscriber. It seems plausible to me, since I get so many low quality poorly targeted ads on repeat. I can't imagine those ads are generating much revenue, but it makes sense if their primary purpose is just to beat me into paying for a subscription.
pier25 11mo ago
IIRC ads predate Youtube premium by years. But why compare these two businesses? They are completely different. From the estimates I've seen, Youtube operating costs are a fraction of what OpenAI is burning yearly.

landedgentry 11mo ago

Youtube premium is not claiming AGI to justify a certain valuation.

aurareturn 11mo ago
I don’t think OpenAI has claimed they have AGI?
- kgwgk 11mo ago
  Maybe not having it but being really close to that and knowing how to build it. "We are now confident we know how to build AGI as we have traditionally understood it. We believe that, in 2025, we may see the first AI agents “join the workforce” and materially change the output of companies."
  - aurareturn 11mo ago
    Hasn't the happened? Plenty of companies are working and experimenting with agents.
    - johnnyanmac 11mo ago
      I'm still waiting for the "materially change the output of companies" part.
- pier25 11mo ago
  Sam Altman said in 2024 that AGI could happen as soon as 2025. https://dianawolftorres.substack.com/p/is-agi-just-around-the-corner-sam https://dianawolftorres.substack.com/p/is-agi-just-around-th... And that's not his only bold claim about AGI.

kgwgk 11mo ago

I doubt anyone would say that given that they got into ads years before giving people the option to pay.

aurareturn 11mo ago
But the same logic applies. Youtube is not profitable without ads and would shut down.
- array_key_first 11mo ago
  Yeah, probably, but then again YouTube is entertainment and Google never claimed to be fixing the world and whatever. Also they're not sucking up hundreds of billions of dollars.
- manojlds 11mo ago
  If ChatGPT and AI is "just" supposed to be Youtube, sure. ChatGPT wasn't supposed to be just YouTube.

varenc 11mo ago

My personal theory: Youtube ads exist as just a punishment to beat you into paying for premium. As in, while the ads make some money, their primary purpose is to motivate you to pay. And that a subscriber generates meaningful more revenue than the ads sales of a non-subscriber. It seems plausible to me, since I get so many low quality poorly targeted ads on repeat. I can't imagine those ads are generating much revenue, but it makes sense if their primary purpose is just to beat me into paying for a subscription.

pier25 11mo ago

IIRC ads predate Youtube premium by years. But why compare these two businesses? They are completely different. From the estimates I've seen, Youtube operating costs are a fraction of what OpenAI is burning yearly.