> “As long as we’re on this very distinct curve of the model getting better and better, I think the rational thing to do is to just be willing to run the loss for quite a while,” Altman [said]
It’s not clear he can keep playing this card, as the GPT-5 announcement day this week marked a point where the reality is clear that the gap between frontier lab foundation models has shrank dramatically. OpenAI no longer has a significant lead, and more importantly, the tech itself might be starting to mature.
belter•6mo ago
Most relevant is this: "OpenAI’s annual recurring revenue is now on track to pass $20 billion this year, but the company is still losing money."
thoughtpeddler•6mo ago
Theoretically they can just flip a switch and double or triple the price of their paid products, and/or start charging a substantial portion of free users, and no longer lose money. We don't know all the details.
belter•6mo ago
On one hand, you say we don’t know the details, yet at the same time you argue they can turn a profit whenever they want?
They don’t have proprietary hardware. They use the same servers available to everyone else. I did the calculations, and for them to turn a profit, their subscription price would have to be far higher than anyone would be willing to pay.
thoughtpeddler•6mo ago
It’s not clear he can keep playing this card, as the GPT-5 announcement day this week marked a point where the reality is clear that the gap between frontier lab foundation models has shrank dramatically. OpenAI no longer has a significant lead, and more importantly, the tech itself might be starting to mature.
belter•6mo ago
thoughtpeddler•6mo ago
belter•6mo ago
They don’t have proprietary hardware. They use the same servers available to everyone else. I did the calculations, and for them to turn a profit, their subscription price would have to be far higher than anyone would be willing to pay.