OpenAI, the company behind the viral AI-powered chatbot called ChatGPT, is reportedly pilot-testing a premium version of the software as its popularity continues to rise.
Yesterday, the company announced in its official Discord channel the launch of a waitlist for those who would like to give the pro version a try and asked the community how much they would be willing to pay for a subscription.
The paid subscription package, which could be called ChatGPT Professional, will enjoy faster responses, an unlimited number of daily queries, and no blackout windows. Users who manage to make it to the waitlist will receive further information later about how much they will have to pay to enjoy the paid service.
In regards to OpenAI’s plans to monetize its popular solution, the head of research firm Hume, Alan Cowen, commented: “I don’t think OpenAI intended to make a business out of ChatGPT. I think it functions as a demo … and a way to gather human feedback for free”.
He added: “Usage grew a lot faster than expected, so they are now contemplating monetization”.
ChatGPT has already attracted the interest of over 1 million users in a relatively short period but the computing costs required to run the service are quite high according to the company’s co-founder, Sam Altman, as ChatGPT runs on the Microsoft Azure cloud infrastructure.
we will have to monetize it somehow at some point; the compute costs are eye-watering
— Sam Altman (@sama) December 5, 2022
Microsoft Could Invest $10 Billion into OpenAI This Year
ChatGPT is possibly leveraging the virality of its software to generate more revenue as its parent company could soon receive a large investment from Microsoft (MSFT). In this regard, the company led by Satya Nadella will reportedly pour $10 billion into the tech firm but will ask for three-quarters of its profits until it fully recovers the investment.
This year, OpenAI is aiming to generate $200 million in revenue according to sources familiar with the firm’s plans. Meanwhile, in 2024, revenues are expected to multiply by 5 times to approximately $1 billion.
Microsoft will reportedly own 49% of OpenAI if its $10 billion investment materializes. In that case, the company would be valued at approximately $29 billion based on its current equity distribution.
Back in 2019, Microsoft invested $1 billion into the tech company in a deal that made the firm founded by Bill Gates its exclusive provider of cloud services. Thus far, Microsoft has used OpenAI’s flagship solutions including Dall-E 2 and ChatGPT to enhance some of its software.
According to recent reports, Microsoft is working on an ChatGPT-powered version of its search engine Bing. Rumors have also started to circulate that the Redmond-based tech firm could use OpenAI’s software to ramp up MS Office.
For example, users could generate images by using Dall-E 2 for their PowerPoint presentations based on the text contained in the slides. In addition, ChatGPT could be used as a virtual assistant to create essays and reports on MS Word based on the instructions provided by the user.
Use Cases for ChatGPT Remain Controversial, Even Among AI Experts
ChatGPT has attracted a fair deal of criticism from academics and experts in the field of artificial intelligence. The organization that hosts a prestigious conference on machine learning, the ICML, recently released a statement that addressed the latest rise in popularity of what they deemed as “large-scale language model (LLM)” solutions like the one created by OpenAI.
One of the forum’s policies states: “Papers that include text generated from a large-scale language model (LLM) such as ChatGPT are prohibited unless the produced text is presented as a part of the paper’s experimental analysis”.
This means that any content generated by users by relying on ChatGPT’s technology cannot be considered proprietary as there is an ongoing debate about who owns the resulting data. With this in mind, ICML is banning any research that comes out of LLMs in 2023.
Moreover, public schools within New York City have restricted students’ access to ChatGPT as they are worried that the use of the software can have “negative impacts on student learning”.
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