You could have said this about Google's Search product...

How much would the average normie pay if Google suddenly charged? Sure the user-base would drop.

And what? Did Google suddenly become a bad business?

I find it funny how people have these strange and hypocritical viewpoints when it comes to OpenAI and Anthropic when the hyperscalars like Google, Amazon etc, followed these exact same kinds of playbooks for years and years.

The labs have raised far, far more money than any of the hyperscalers ever did, with no sign of a route to monopoly profits.

Probably not a normie but I pay for Kagi search because it’s a lot like pre-seo google. So far haven’t tried any AI since OpenCYC.