OpenAI, the company behind the popular AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT, just announced the launch of a premium subscription package for individuals and institutions that would like to enjoy faster and more reliable access to the solution.
The cost of the subscription will be $20 per month and the benefits include access to the generate artificial intelligence (AI) software during times of high usage, faster response times, and VIP access to all new features and functionalities developed by the firm.
The service is only available to residents of the United States at the moment but those who have signed up for the firm’s waitlist may be contacted soon. ChatGPT should also be made available to other countries soon.
OpenAI also commented that they are working to roll out a ChatGPT API soon. This solution is used by developers to connect their software to OpenAI’s chatbot so they can leverage its technology to improve their existing products and services.
The company founded by Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and other tech experts recently received a $10 billion investment from Microsoft (MSFT) as the Redmond-based tech giant is betting big on artificial intelligence.
OpenAI’s solutions rely on Microsoft’s Azure cloud infrastructure to process the mathematical and computational operations required by its software. The company founded by Bill Gates partnered with OpenAI back in July 2019 when it invested $1 billion to support its ongoing research efforts to create what the public is seeing now.
A Free Version of ChatGPT Will Still be Available
Free users will continue to have access to ChatGPT. However, they will have to keep dealing with the system’s congestion, which often results in failed loads. OpenAI stated that they plan to use the funds from the premium subscription to further strengthen the free version of the product.
Rumors circulated for weeks about the imminent release of this premium subscription amid the high popularity of ChatGPT. In late January, OpenAI updated the ChatGPT website and added details about the paid version of the service including a cost of $42 per month.
However, the firm rapidly removed the information and left users wondering what happened. It appears that there were disagreements about the pricing among the leadership team or it may have been an honest mistake from the person who was updating the site.
Users who have joined the company’s waitlist have already been able to test the capabilities of the paid membership. With faster response times and immediate access to the solution, professionals from multiple fields could rely on ChatGPT for research purposes
Is a ChatGPT Premium Subscription Worth it?
ChatGPT is considered a generative text-to-text artificial intelligence software that can provide answers to any prompt inputted by the user. The responses given by ChatGPT come from public sources of information including official government websites, online courses, social media, Wikipedia, and eBooks.
Even though the answers provided by the software are typically considered authoritative, users must be cautious about treating them as infallible as ChatGPT depends on the integrity of the information contained in these sources and does not have fact-checking capabilities.
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Experts have warned that the responses cannot be blindly relied on as they could contain factual errors and historical inaccuracies. In most cases, ChatGPT should facilitate the process of researching and learning about a certain topic by serving as a starting point.
For journalists, scientists, students, teachers, and many others, it could be a powerful tool to reduce the time that it takes to find relevant information about a certain subject on the internet. A $20 monthly subscription for that kind of help does not seem too high of a price to pay.
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