The idea probably was to pour billions into technologies powering these LLMs, and gain a moat. It then turns out that this isn't as hard a problem as expected, it's just very expensive. So as long as you have money, you can be an AI company, the money is the moat (unless you take a shortcut, like DeepSeek) and money is running out.

I don't think you're missing anything, but I am surprised that the forces behind the AI companies did. They do need to start making money, but I don't think anyone has a plan as to how they are going to do this. As for enshittification, that was always on the table for the free tier, it was also going to be the drug deal strategy, were the first hit is free.

The cost of AI is still to high, datacenters aren't being completed, the hardware is to expensive, electricity is to expensive, the technology is good, but requires hand-holding. We're going to see AI being deploy more sparingly and more targeted, so the cost is justified.

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lenkite 2 hours ago | parent [-]

> They do need to start making money, but I don't think anyone has a plan as to how they are going to do this.

Doesn't this just mean price increase ? What is not clear is how much the price needs to increase for AI companies to break even some time. 3x increase ? 10x increase ? Even more ? No one seems willing to give a clear number.

	▲	mrweasel an hour ago \| parent [-]
		You can only increase the price so much. With every price increase you're going to lose customers, which could lead to further price increases. I'm not entirely convince that the AI companies can raise prices and keep enough of their customer base to make their current strategy commercially viable. They could also lower their production cost, but that runs counter to building/buying new datacenter capacity. Realistically I think they need to look for applications where cheaper models are just as good and niches that where the ROI on AI is more clear.