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highplainsdem

(62,421 posts)
11. It's the extent to which they're running at a loss that's anything but standard. Most users now pay $20 or
Fri Apr 3, 2026, 11:50 AM
Apr 3

less per month, when the companies lose money with $200/mo subscriptions. It's been over a year already since the CEOs of both OpenAI and Perplexity AI were talking about possible $1,000/mo subscriptions. Altman talking about it had made news, but I didn't see an exact quote or context. I did see a tweet from Srinivas wondering aloud about what AI could give consumers to make them think $1,000/mo would be considered a good deal. I didn't bother looking to see what sort of answers he got, or if there was more discussion of that online. I saw his tweet only because someone I follow had commented. But I remember thinking at the time that he would need users to be really addicted to AI for them to be fine paying $1,000/month for it.

And then Perplexity suddenly, several weeks ago, throttled its $200/year subscription tier to the point where users would have to switch to the $200/month subscription tier to get comparable AI usage.

See the second part of the OP here, the part about Perplexity:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100221039651

I don't know if they've since had to relent and give users more for that $200/year subscription. But the fact Srinivas even tried to throttle usage that much shows how desperate he's getting about the gap between what customers are paying and what those customers are costing Perplexity.

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If you like your news/commentary in audio, Ed Zitron also has a podcast, "Better Offline" RockRaven Apr 2 #1
Thanks! There's also an r/BetterOffline subreddit where Ed posts as ezitron. highplainsdem Apr 2 #3
Much love to Ed! BlueNProud Apr 2 #2
He's been doing brilliant analysis of the AI industry. highplainsdem Apr 2 #4
Yes indeed BlueNProud Apr 2 #6
That's kind of the standard business practice now EdmondDantes_ Apr 2 #5
It's the extent to which they're running at a loss that's anything but standard. Most users now pay $20 or highplainsdem Apr 3 #11
Yup get them hooked at a cheap price newdeal2 Apr 3 #12
True. But as I said above, we've probably never seen this great a disparity between what customers highplainsdem Apr 3 #17
Hard for me to say because I wonder about enterprise customers newdeal2 Apr 3 #19
They'll make a quick pivot to mass government surveillance... hunter Apr 3 #7
I hope they won't get enough from the government to make up for their losses with all other highplainsdem Apr 3 #13
Really interesting WSHazel Apr 3 #8
I'm sure there are, but I can't make any recommendations offhand. Ed does link to lots of sources, highplainsdem Apr 3 #14
I'm pretty sure Chinese AI will be better and more affordable. David__77 Apr 3 #9
Still with the same illegal-training problem, though, and another surveillance worry. highplainsdem Apr 3 #15
Makes perfect sense to me. MineralMan Apr 3 #10
Thanks! I hope the correction happens soon, so investment money and valuable expertise will go to highplainsdem Apr 3 #16
Agreed! MineralMan Apr 3 #18
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