> Almost everybody I know uses ChatGPT at least semi-regularly for all kinds of things.
Ed's perspective is from a nonengineering side, not the typical Hacker News user or LLM API consumer.
> My understanding is that they (on average, including their free users) make money on usage, but lose money on training.
The billion-dollar YoY losses can only be possible with negative marginal profits. Training is expensive but not that expensive.
> I also think OpenAI isn't yet serious about monetizing its products. You can just go to ChatGPT and use it for free
That's just modern software business: have the user try it for free (loss-leading) with an incentive to upsell to a paid product, notably ChatGPT+. And if OpenAI didn't do it, others will as is currently the case now. But in a post ZIRP world that doesn't work as well.
Ed's perspective is from a nonengineering side, not the typical Hacker News user or LLM API consumer.
> My understanding is that they (on average, including their free users) make money on usage, but lose money on training.
The billion-dollar YoY losses can only be possible with negative marginal profits. Training is expensive but not that expensive.
> I also think OpenAI isn't yet serious about monetizing its products. You can just go to ChatGPT and use it for free
That's just modern software business: have the user try it for free (loss-leading) with an incentive to upsell to a paid product, notably ChatGPT+. And if OpenAI didn't do it, others will as is currently the case now. But in a post ZIRP world that doesn't work as well.