The timing of this is great considering Google's rumoured Gemini 3.5 flash pricing spike.
AI is too expensive
21–30 of 165 posts
Re: AI is too expensive
#22The counter argument (not mine): Software Engineers are willing to spend their own money on AI. The same people that wouldn't pay 10 dollars for code if there was a workaround that took hours.
I did a thought experiment: if you went back to 2019 and could use AI in your job at the current market price - like lets say using the latest Deepseek V4, would you pay for it?
Hell yeah obviously. There's close to no doubt. So why do we think its not true now?
Re: AI is too expensive
#23It's just getting started. You won't find out what the real, actual cost is until after you build it into your workflow. In other words; right now, we're still in the "bait" phase. The "switch" comes later.
Next year is gonna be when the “switch” comes lollll
And the switch will continue, it won't be a one-time event. Like how the price of Netflix etc. keeps going up periodically.
If people's dependence on their streaming service keeps them captive, just wait until people have gone 5 years without doing real work.
Re: AI is too expensive
#24Imagine you were looking at Google, a sustainable and profitable business, and you thought you saw a once in a lifetime opportunity to compete with them and take their position as a leading tech company. How much money would you need to spend to make a credible attempt? Google has had decades to accumulate intellectual and physical capital. Catching up quickly means spending >500 billion. If you can actually dethrone…
What a strange train of thought. Why would you need that amount in this hypothetical? Why would dethroning them alone be worth it? It would literally only be worth it if you could do so profitably.
More realistically, it seems like someone calculated that it could still be profitable up to several hundreds of billions of dollars which explains the initial investment. And continued investment can be explained by trying to salvage the existing capital spend. But even if it's the best option those companies have now as far as a hypothetical goes, it still might not have been worth it.
Re: AI is too expensive
#25If you're older than 30, you've seen this play out before… This is just how the VC game works. Cross-town Uber rides don't stay $5 forever. The bright side is: this is a golden era of subsidized tokens. It will not always be like this, so now is the time to churn out your passion projects.
Probably the worst comparison I have seen on the topic. gz.
Re: AI is too expensive
#26The thing that everyone seems to be missing is that the US AI companies are focused on the frontier models, that are very expensive for diminishing returns.
If suddenly the money craze stops, meaning (1) AI companies investors want them to become profitable and (2) clients start being cost-sensitive to AI bills (which they are absolutely not currently), then everyone will switch to smaller, cheaper models that are enough for a lot of use case.
Sonnet instead of Opus. GPT 5.4 instead of 5.5.
Chinese models.
People keep comparing to Uber but Uber can't suddenly make it cheaper to operate.
Re: AI is too expensive
#27The rug pull on users is bound to happen and it will involve advertising.
Algorithmically and seamlessly weaving undisclosed advertising (or other editorial content) into conversational output is their holy grail. It's the endgame. There's a reason they're pushing so hard.
Re: AI is too expensive
#28It's just getting started. You won't find out what the real, actual cost is until after you build it into your workflow. In other words; right now, we're still in the "bait" phase. The "switch" comes later.
Chinese 1T+ models are being offered at a fraction of GPT/Claude cost, and the margin is healthy enough for dozens of providers to compete, so I find it highly likely that ClosedAI and Misanthropic sell tokens at massive markup. they just still bleed billions on their free tier and san francisco salaries.
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Re: AI is too expensive
#29The thing that everyone seems to be missing is that the US AI companies are focused on the frontier models, that are very expensive for diminishing returns. If suddenly the money craze stops, meaning (1) AI companies investors want them to become profitable and (2) clients start being cost-sensitive to AI bills (which they are absolutely not currently), then everyone will switch to smaller, cheaper models that are en…
> GPT 5.4 instead of 5.5.
I am exclusively using 5.4 because its only 1x and very good, but the github calculation showed my once $40 become a $680 billing
That is too expensive and not worth paying
Re: AI is too expensive
#30Imagine you were looking at Google, a sustainable and profitable business, and you thought you saw a once in a lifetime opportunity to compete with them and take their position as a leading tech company. How much money would you need to spend to make a credible attempt? Google has had decades to accumulate intellectual and physical capital. Catching up quickly means spending >500 billion. If you can actually dethrone…
Most disruptive start-ups don't come from a giant pile of cash, but from new ideas that the old players can't or won't adopt. It did not take $500B to build a digital camera.