Comment by elorant
2 years ago
With subscription models for their apis depending on the use scenario. That could be one reason they opened the service, to see what people are using it for in order to later build services around those use cases.
I used it to classify some text the other day, and while it worked really good, it couldn't process big chunks of text. If they offered a pricing model per million characters I'd gladly pay it.
Honestly that doesn't seem too promising as a business prospect. It's essentially an admission that they have a solution but haven't found a problem warranting their initial investment. Even in your case, how will the API generate profit for you?
I already have a service where I curate news articles for specific industries. If an AI can classify the articles it can cut down 80% of the work I’m doing by perusing hundreds of news articles to find the ones that interest my clients.
I'm not arguing that this by itself could justify the tens (or hundreds?) of millions it cost to build the AI, but my guess is that there are dozen of business cases a tool like that could be useful. Just the other day I came upon a company called Persado that provides different marketing copy depending on the age group you're addressing. They could easily eat their lunch with ChatGPT.
I think when it comes to the tech business, due to the VC voodoo of the recent past, where "possibilities" are propped up long enough to safely exit while leaving the economic realities of a business to the public markets, basic economic realities have been traditionally ignored in the tech sector. The idea that there's some use for a tech doesn't justify its cost if the revenue isn't there. Most headline AI products have been financial duds (voice, self-driving cars) despite whatever enthusiasm and wonder they've inspired.