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AI chatbots lose money every time you use them. That’s a problem.

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Summary

AI chatbots are becoming increasingly popular, but they are costly to run due to the large language models used to power them. The expense of models and the limited availability of computer chips needed to run them is limiting the quality of the technology and creating a financial barrier to companies attempting to use AI. The cost of running AI models is so high that even the world's richest companies need to find ways to turn chatbots into moneymakers. To make the technology more affordable, companies are working on making AI models more efficient and trying to find ways to monetize AI tools.

Q&As

What are the costs associated with running AI chatbots?
The costs associated with running AI chatbots include developing and training them, which requires data and software to identify patterns in language, hiring star researchers, and routing queries to data centers where supercomputers crunch the models.

How is the expense of AI language models limiting their quality?
The expense of AI language models is limiting their quality by constraining which companies can afford to run them and forcing them to use weaker models than what is available. This can lead to the chatbots spitting out biased results or blatant falsehoods.

What happens when AI chatbots make mistakes?
When AI chatbots make mistakes, it can lead to a loss of market share and a decrease in the value of the company's shares.

What is the economic impact of AI language models on the tech industry?
The economic impact of AI language models on the tech industry is that it is driving profits primarily to the chipmakers and cloud computing giants that already control much of the digital space, as well as the chipmakers whose hardware they need to run the models.

Will AI chatbots become profitable in the future?
It is uncertain if AI chatbots will become profitable in the future, as companies are still working to make them more efficient and cost-effective.

AI Comments

👍 This article provides a comprehensive overview of the impact of AI chatbots on the economy and environment, as well as the increasing reliance of companies and individuals on these tools.

👎 Despite the promise of AI chatbots, this article highlights the expensive cost of running these models and the limited availability of the computer chips they require, making them inaccessible to many companies.

AI Discussion

Me: It's about how AI chatbots are losing money every time you use them, and how this could be a problem for the AI boom in the long run. It also discusses the cost implications of using AI language models, and how this could impact the democratization of AI technology.

Friend: That's really interesting! What are the implications of this article?

Me: Well, the main implication is that the cost of running AI chatbots is high, and this is limiting the quality of the technology. It's also constraining which companies can afford to run them, and forcing even the wealthiest companies to find ways to make AI chatbots profitable. Additionally, it's likely that AI chatbots will need to be subsidized with ads or other revenue models in order to be profitable, which could have implications for privacy. Also, the cost of running AI models is driving up the demand and value for GPUs, which is benefiting chipmakers like Nvidia and TSMC. Finally, the high cost of AI technology is also raising concerns about its environmental impact, since it requires a lot of energy.

Action items

Research the cost of running AI chatbots and the environmental impacts of their use.
Sign up for The Tech Friend newsletter to stay informed on the latest developments in AI technology.
Explore open-source language models and start-ups that are building more efficient chips for AI.

Technical terms

AI chatbots: Artificial Intelligence chatbots are computer programs that are designed to simulate conversations with human users.
ChatGPT: ChatGPT is an AI chatbot developed by OpenAI, a research lab founded by Elon Musk and Sam Altman.
Bard: Bard is an AI chatbot developed by Google.
GPUs: Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) are specialized computer chips that are used to process large amounts of data quickly.
LaMDA: LaMDA is a language model developed by Google.
Sparrow: Sparrow is an AI chatbot developed by Google's DeepMind subsidiary.
LLaMA: LLaMA is an open-source language model developed by Meta.
GPT-3.5: GPT-3.5 is a language model developed by OpenAI.
GPT-4: GPT-4 is a language model developed by OpenAI.
Hallucinations: Hallucinations are errors made by AI chatbots that can lead to false or biased results.