Sign up to save tools and stay up to date with the latest in AI
bg
bg
1

What margins? AI's business model is changing fast, says Cohere founder | TechCrunch

Aug 20, 2024 - news.bensbites.com
AI companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere are struggling with the business model of selling access to their AI models due to competitive price dumping, according to Aidan Gomez, CEO of Cohere. The cost of training these models is high, and the race to the bottom in terms of pricing, coupled with some companies offering models for free, is making it a zero-margin business. The situation is particularly challenging for startups, which unlike tech giants like Microsoft and Google, cannot easily absorb the losses.

Gomez suggests that the application layer, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT subscription, could be a potential revenue source. He also warns against AI startups becoming subsidiaries of their cloud providers, as it could limit their potential for growth and competition. Despite the current challenges, there is hope that future innovations in model architecture, data efficiencies, or computing power could eventually generate significant returns for these AI models.

Key takeaways:

  • AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic are spending billions on training models, but competitive price dumping is making the business precarious.
  • Aidan Gomez, CEO of Cohere, suggests that selling access to AI models is becoming a zero margin business due to the high costs and low returns.
  • Big tech companies are acquiring AI startups, leaving behind unprofitable business models while preserving their powerful technology.
  • There is speculation that future innovations in AI model architecture, data efficiencies or computing power could generate huge returns, but it's uncertain when or if this will happen.
View Full Article

Comments (0)

Be the first to comment!