This week, OpenAI hinted that ChatGPT, a popular chatbot powered by AI that can produce essays, emails, poems, and even computer code, might soon start to cost money.
OpenAI stated that one of the ways it is “starting to think about how to monetize ChatGPT” is to “ensure [the tool’s] long-term viability” in a post on the company’s official Discord channel.
It appears that ChatGPT Professional will be the name of the paid edition of the tool.
This is supported by a waitlist link that OpenAI placed in the Discord server, which includes a series of inquiries about payment preferences, such as “At what price (per month) would you consider ChatGPT to be so expensive that you would not consider buying it?”
The waitlist also lists the advantages of ChatGPT Professional, which include “at least 2x the standard daily limit” of messages and no “blackout” (i.e., unavailability) windows. The waitlist form’s submitters may be chosen for a pilot of ChatGPT Professional, according to OpenAI, but the service is still in its experimental stages and won’t be made generally available “at this moment.”
Despite criticism and a number of suspensions, ChatGPT has proven to be a public relations success for OpenAI, garnering significant media coverage and inspiring a ton of social media memes. ChatGPT is being used by several investors in their workflows. Ryan Reynolds hired ChatGPT to create an advertisement for Mint Mobile, the cellular provider he co-owns. Additionally, it is said that Microsoft would integrate ChatGPT’s AI into Bing and its Office software.
By any standard, ChatGPT had an enviable user base of over a million members as of the beginning of December. However, running the service costs money. The operational costs of ChatGPT, which come to a few cents per chat in total compute expenditures, are “eye-watering,” says Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO of OpenAI. (Microsoft’s Azure cloud is where ChatGPT is hosted.)
Before a potential $10 billion investment from Microsoft, OpenAI is under pressure to make money on products like ChatGPT. In comparison to the more than $1 billion that has been spent in the firm so far, OpenAI plans to make just $200 million in 2023.
This week, Semafor revealed that Microsoft is aiming to acquire a 49% share in OpenAI, valuing the business at about $29 billion. According to the agreement, Microsoft would receive 75% of OpenAI’s income up until it recoups its investment, while other investors would take 49% and OpenAI would hold the remaining 2% of shares.
A “capped-profit” approach used by OpenAI, a company with an unconventional corporate structure, restricts investors’ returns to 100 times their initial investment, or maybe less in the future.
