by ChatGPT’s popularity has skyrocketed in recent months, but the exciting days of unrestricted free access to the AI chatbot could soon be over: some users are reporting they’re looking at an upgrade plan to an expensive version of ChatGPT Professional.
The chatbot’s maker, OpenAI, has yet to make any official announcements about a payment level for ChatGPT or its possible price. This means that pop-ups about a pro plan that costs $42 per month, shared on Twitter (opens in a new tab) and Reddit, remain speculation. We’ve reached out to OpenAI to confirm this.
But rumors suggest that a professional level of ChatGPT, which OpenAI recently opened an official waiting list. (opens in a new tab) Stop, it’s getting closer. And if the message some users reported seeing after clicking a new ‘Upgrade Plan’ option is correct, it could have big ramifications for free users of their AI skills.
According to the message, the $42 per month Professional Plan will apparently give subscribers access to the service “even when demand is high,” including “faster response speed” and give them “priority access to new features.” But the other side of the coin is that the Free Plan promises that ChatGPT will be “available when demand is low”, which could restrict your access.
It is not yet clear how often or when this “low” demand might be. ChatGPT has regularly given in to demands for its AI skills, displaying a “ChatGPT is at capacity right now” message that will be familiar to regular users. But if the descriptions of the two ChatGPT plans are true, it could mean that free users are locked out of the service during popular hours of the day.
No doubt there would be users and businesses that could justify a $42 per month tier for ChatGPT, with Bloomberg (opens in a new tab) recently reporting that 30% of professionals have tried AI chatbot at work. However, many users on the service’s Discord server and on Reddit have expressed disappointment over the pricing rumors and the potential ramifications of the paid tier for the free version. We will update this article when we hear from OpenAI.
Analysis: The AI Chatbot Arms Race Begins
It’s not just ChatGPT’s AI capabilities that are rapidly evolving: its business model is also rapidly being forged under the twin pressures of internal and external forces.
Microsoft has a big stake in ChatGPT and has said it plans to bring the service to its cloud-based Azure service “soon”, along with Outlook and Word. and the New York Times (opens in a new tab) also recently reported that Google plans to reveal some of its new chatbot innovations at Google I/O, which begins on May 11.
The report suggests that Google will “demonstrate a chatbot-enabled version of its search engine this year,” supporting an earlier quote by Demis Hassabis (CEO of Google-owned DeepMind) that it could launch a ‘dialogue broker’ named Sparrow. for a private beta sometime in 2023.
Competition from AI chatbots is so fierce that Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have apparently been enlisted to offer advice on how the search giant should approach ChatGPT. While it’s still early days for the technology, with some red flags about its ability to write malware and make discriminatory comments, Google’s concern about an impact on its traditional search business is understandable.
So far, Google has erred on the side of caution, with DeepMind noting the potential for “inaccurate or fabricated information” with chatbots and the potential impact it could have on brand trust. But with ChatGPT Professional seemingly closing in and Microsoft baking its AI chops into its services, it’s looking more and more like 2023 will be the year of an escalating chatbot arms race.
