• Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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        6 days ago

        On the other hand some breakthrough in either hardware or software could make AI models significantly cheaper to run and/or train. The current cost in silicon is insane and just screams that there’s efficiencies to be found. As always, in a gold rush, sell pickaxes

        • dan@upvote.au
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          6 days ago

          Definitely a possibility! It’ll be interesting to see what happens.

    • ddplf@szmer.info
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      6 days ago

      Wait, since when it had not been? Or are you telling me that vastly the fastest growing platform in history with multiple payment gates (subscriptions, pay per token, licensing etc.) was not profitable for some reason?

      • sp3tr4l@lemmy.zip
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        6 days ago

        Not sure if you are joking but… it does not appear to be making anywhere near the amount of money that has been invested in it.

        It costs a stupendous amount of money to develop the models, to train them, to rent out or just buy the hardware needed to do this, to pay for the electrical power to do this.

        • ddplf@szmer.info
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          6 days ago

          Not joking, I’m just underinformed

          Now that I think of it, yeah, it makes absolute sense. It’s not a stable income OpenAI is based on, but rather the endless wagons of money from hyped up sponsors. Very much unsustainable.

          • The Assman@sh.itjust.works
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            6 days ago

            the endless wagons of money from hyped up sponsors

            For the record, that describes almost every big software company in the last 30 years.

        • cygnus@lemmy.ca
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          6 days ago

          It isn’t even close to making a profit. They are bleeding billions per year with no obvious path to breaking even, let alone profiting enough to justify their enormous valuation. It’s very much a bubble and I look forward to the day it pops.

          Edit: if you want a lengthy read on the subject https://www.wheresyoured.at/oai-business/

          • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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            6 days ago

            To be fair, if I had an option to effectively invest in Google circa 2004 in 2024 I would toss some spare money at it, and that’s basically what OpenAI is offering at this moment. They’ve established themselves, shown strong leadership and established strong relationships with major companies. They’re a leader in a particular product segment and while they could falter and fail, there’s enough momentum that they’re more likely to be acquired than to actually fail, plus they’re swimming in extremely uncharted waters so there’s plenty of opportunities for them to both greatly improve ongoing operational efficiency and to create new products with new markets, much like where Google was in 2004

        • Flocklesscrow@lemm.ee
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          6 days ago

          The cost is to the whole world, because they consume enormous amounts of energy and produce essentially nothing. Like bitcoin miners.

          • TheDoctor [they/them]@hexbear.net
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            6 days ago

            Worse than Bitcoin miners, AI seems to have the wholethroated support of capital (rather than a single faction), who see it as the next big form of automation

          • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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            6 days ago

            AI at least provides a clear product that can be a helpful workforce multiplier, whereas Bitcoin provided an unprotected alternative to traditional markets with none of the safeguards nor legal precedents of traditional markets, so it’s only led to illegal activities piled upon illegal activities

      • facow [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
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        6 days ago

        Or are you telling me that vastly the fastest growing platform in history with multiple payment gates (subscriptions, pay per token, licensing etc.) was not profitable

        Are you not aware that 99 times out of 100 if you see a tech company rapidly growing it’s completely unprofitable and not even attempting to be profitable yet? It’s called blitzscaling and is pretty clearly what openai is attempting. Like if you see a tech company quickly growing you should be assuming it’s unprofitable until proven otherwise not the opposite lol.

        • selokichtli@lemmy.ml
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          6 days ago

          They should ask ChatGPT hoe to make OpenAI profitable. I’m sure the answer will make them take off.