> AI is a world-changing technology, just like the railroads were

This comparison keeps popping up, and I think it's misleading. The pace of technology uptake is completely different from that of railroads: the user base of ChatGPT alone went from 0 to 200 million in nine months, and it's now- after just three years- around 900 million users on a weekly basis. Even if you think that railroads and AI are equally impactful (I don't, I think AI will be far more impactful) the rapidity with which investments can turn into revenue and profit makes the situation entirely different from an investor's point of view.

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freehorse 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Railroads carried the goods that everybody used. That’s like almost 100% in a given country.

The pace was slower indeed. It takes time to build the railroads. But at that time advancements also lasted longer. Now it is often cash grabs until the next thing. Not comparable indeed but for other reasons.

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lm28469 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> just three years- around 900 million users on a weekly basis.

Well, I rotate about a dozen of free accounts because I don't want to send 1 cent their way, I imagine I'm not the only one. I do the same for gemini, claude and deepseek, so all in all I account for like 50 "unique" weekly users

Apparently they have about 5% of paying customers, the amount of total users is meaningless, it just tells you how much money they burn and isn't an indication of anything else.

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throw310822 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> I rotate about a dozen of free accounts .. I do the same for gemini, claude and deepseek

For someone who doesn't like the product and doesn't care about it, you surely make a lot of effort to use it.

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lm28469 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Sometime you have to force the trickle down economy a bit, these people are destroying my industry I might as well cost them as much as possible before I have no choice but to move on.

It's also literally 0 effort, click > sign out > click > sign in. It saves me $200 a month, that's not too far from half of my rent

	▲	throw310822 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I can understand the spirit, though this reinforces my impression that the product is so good that people jump through hoops to use it, even if they hate it in principle. If they suddenly cut off any free access to it, how much would you be willing to pay per month to keep using it? One dollar? Ten? Twenty? Also, maybe I'm missing something, but no amount of free accounts on ChatGPT gives you what you get with a paid subscription, especially with a $200 one; and there's paid plans from just $8/month.

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mikkupikku 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that users who put that much effort into using this stuff for free, using a dozen different accounts, are very rare.

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nosianu 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It is beside the point, but

> I think AI will be far more impactful

is not correct IMO. Those are two very different areas. The impact of railroads on transport and everything transport-related cannot be understated. By now roads and cars have taken over much of it, and ships and airplanes are doing much more, but you have to look at the context at the time.

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shaky-carrousel 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Paid user base or free user base? Because free user base on a very expensive product is next to meaningless.

	▲	throw310822 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		It's meaningful because it shows that people like the product a lot, and for a lot of different reasons. There are only few products that can reach such market penetration, not to mention in only three years. As the quality of AI increases, people will quickly realise that they are willing to pay for it as much as they pay for electricity. And the same goes for businesses.

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steve1977 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Railroads enabled people and goods to move from one place to another much easier and faster.

AI enables people to... produce even more useless slop than before?

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throw310822 4 hours ago | parent [-]

At this point I'm taking the word "slop" as a sign meaning "I really didn't think this through and I'm just autocompleting based on a gut feeling and the first word that comes to mind".

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steve1977 4 hours ago | parent [-]

That's an easy way out, isn't it?

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mikkupikku 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Using thought terminating clichés in general is, and that can include "slop".

	▲	adammarples 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The irony of atacking thought terminating clichés while defending slop