Microsoft is considering a ten billion dollar commitment to Open AI, the creator of ChatGPT.
At the beginning of this month, OpenAI announced that it is investigating methods to earn money from its AI chatbot, ChatGPT. They provided the option for people to join a waiting list for early access to the “ChatGPT Professional” version. Now, some users state that they have been given access to the professional-level which costs $42 per month.
It is yet unknown if OpenAI has officially declared this to be a trial. As OpenAI stated recently: “Please bear in mind that this is an initial experimental program which is subject to alteration, and we are not currently providing paid pro access in general.”
Considering this, what is included in the $42 fee per month? As per the reports shared by people who were allowed to use it previously, they are granted with quicker response times, more dependable access (since ChatGPT is frequently not working), and “top priority to new features” (whatever these may be).
Zahid Khawaja, an AI programmer, posted a video of the pro version functioning on both desktop and mobile, further demonstrating this with a screenshot of the payment he made to OpenAI. He stated that the system was much more responsive than the free edition.
One of the more difficult questions to answer is the cost. On the ChatGPT Discord, lots of people were dissatisfied with the $42 cost.
One user commented that although the 42 dollars per month could be justified from a financial standpoint, it represented a significant percentage of the minimum wage in their country.
Another commented that they had an intense desire to purchase a plan, but felt that the $42 fee was too extravagant.
Those who take advantage of AI and aspire to become “superhuman” should not find the 42 USD too expensive; however, it may be too costly for many others, someone else commented.
The commenter’s point is that the perception of the price will depend on the need for the service. People have reported that ChatGPT has been useful for their job, so for them the $42 cost per month would be considered a typical cost for software. However, those who use the tool casually will have to hope the free tier continues to be available with the same features as the professional version. Even a small fee will be a way to gauge how helpful ChatGPT really is, and since there is no other similar service, the $42 is likely OpenAI’s initial appraoch to pricing it.
It’s important to remember that the AI chatbot market will experience significant growth this year. Not only are other systems being developed, such as Claude, created by OpenAI personnel, but Microsoft is planning to integrate ChatGPT into Bing and its office suite. Additionally, Google is reportedly planning to demonstrate a chat-augmented search product this year. While ChatGPT has gained the attention of early adopters, it will soon be met with a lot of competition.
