The paid version would provide even quicker responses and an unlimited number of answers.
A paid version of the AI-powered program ChatGPT is reportedly being developed, although it is currently available for free.
According to a post on the company’s Discord server, OpenAI, the laboratory responsible for creating the program, is investigating ways to monetize the popular chatbot.
The laboratory stated, “We’re beginning to contemplate how to generate revenue from ChatGPT (initial thoughts, nothing official to announce yet). Our objective is to keep enhancing and maintaining the service, and generating income is one of the methods we’re contemplating to guarantee its long-term sustainability.
The post also includes a link to a survey regarding a paid version of the program referred to as “professional ChatGPT access”. The laboratory is seeking input from users on the amount they would be willing to pay for more extensive access to ChatGPT.
As per the survey, the professional ChatGPT would be always-on without any downtime, providing even quicker responses. It would also provide double the number of messages compared to the current daily limit.
OpenAI intends to make the trial paid version of ChatGPT available through a waiting list. The laboratory also stated, “We are not making paid professional access widely accessible at this time.
This effort to generate revenue is likely a result of the significant monthly expenses incurred by the San Francisco-based laboratory to maintain the servers required to operate ChatGPT on a large public scale. According to OpenAI’s co-founder Sam Altman, each conversation generated with the bot probably incurs a few cents in costs for the laboratory.
Therefore, generating revenue could assist OpenAI in staying financially stable while interest in the chatbot remains high. ChatGPT’s popularity has become so significant that even Google has expressed concern over its potential to replace traditional search engines through a chatbot that can provide human-like conversational responses to user inquiries.
As reported by Reuters, OpenAI anticipates generating $200 million in revenue this year and $1 billion by 2024. The company may also receive a significant investment from Microsoft, which aims to integrate ChatGPT into Bing. According to Semafor, Microsoft is contemplating investing $10 billion in OpenAI, in return, Microsoft would receive 75% of the profit OpenAI generates until it recoups the investment, and eventually a 49% stake in the lab.
