Sam Altman said ads in ChatGPT would be a “last resort.” That was just over a year ago. Now OpenAI is burning billions monthly, sitting on $1.4 trillion in commitments, with only 5% of users paying. Turns out the last resort came fast when people can’t afford yet another subscription.
On the “figure out what customers want before they do” bit, it’s important to remember that these execs:
Source: a long time in retail and tech.
Tech bros see business as building something cool then watching money poor in. I don’t think they can understand actual marketing—as in, knowing a market and what it needs.
AI is an expensive product with a small market. Unless they can charge huge amounts for it or expand the market, it’s a dead product.