Grumbles about generative AI’s shortcomings are coalescing into a “trough of disillusionment” after a year and a half of hype about ChatGPT and other bots.
Why it matters: AI is still changing the world — but improving and integrating the technology is raising harder and more complex questions than first envisioned, and no chatbot has the magic answers.
Driving the news: The hurdles are everything from embarrassing errors, such as extra fingers or Black founding fathers in generated images, to significant concerns about intellectual property infringement, cost, environmental impact and other issues.

  • @knightly
    link
    English
    1
    edit-2
    1 month ago

    No, they aren’t. The things LLMs are being used for aren’t significant enough to justify the costs. OpenAI is the most capital-intensive startup in Silicon Valley history and burns through almost a million bucks a day in data center operations alone. Its net income was -$540 million in 2022 and 2023 looks to be closer to losing a whole billion despite nonupling their income. They’ll need to double their revenue again without raising costs just to start breaking even.

    That kind of money-bonfire never lasts long.

    • FaceDeer
      link
      fedilink
      11 month ago

      I literally addressed this in the comment you’re responding to. The individual service providers don’t matter, especially not first movers. This is an entire industry, it’s not just one company.

      • @knightly
        link
        English
        11 month ago

        Precisely. It isn’t just one company blowing billions.

          • @knightly
            link
            English
            11 month ago

            If that’s what you actually want, you can ask Google’s LLM to list them for you.