Comment by Zababa
2 hours ago
>At their very core, Large Language Models' costs run contrary to basically every model of selling software.
>Consumers and enterprises alike have been trained to pay a monthly fee for a service, and while these services might have limits or strictures, basically nobody buying software expects to have a metered service, let alone one that's both metered and with hard to measure costs.
Has Ed Zitron not heard about the cloud? Unpredictable AWS bills?
Unpredictable AWS bills are a supply-side problem. He's talking about consumer behavior, and consumers of software do not expect a metered service.
But most consumer's aren't paying per token for access to models, so unless that changes and the labs start charging API pricing to everyone, it's kind of a moot point.
Enterprise certainly wouldn't fit. This argument seems to be targeted at the consumer market, which Apple deals in. Consumers are not paying varying Disney+ subscription prices based on how much they watch. So many points are still interesting. Though, I'm not convinced the consumer market is the primary target for AI firms.