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by londons_explore 1039 days ago
I think they have to decide if they want to be an API provider or a product-maker.

Businesses don't tend to do well when they directly compete with their clients.

At the very least spin one off into a subsidiary whose affiliation isn't widely known.
4 comments
vineyardmike 1039 days ago
Seems pretty obvious they decided to be a product maker. This is them doubling down.

They started out obviously doing API stuff. chatGPT was some sort of proof-of-concept or whatever but once it went viral, the obvious pivot is to be a product maker. The margins on ChatGPT+ is way better than an API, as every ChatGPT clone will tell you. A viral product is really hard to make, never mind make and throw away to focus on lower margin corporate customers.

They seem to have a great vision now - make a good product (WIP, but rapidly iterating), and sell the underlying models to Microsoft to offer as an API for the residual value they can’t capture directly. This should make it clear that if you’re selling a Chatbot off of their APIs, they’re planning to compete with you.

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_pdp_ 1039 days ago
100% Yep. I like OpenAI but I think their peril will be due to lack of vision more than anything else. Other players are catching up. IMHO they should stick to providing AI infrastructure.

That being said, considering Microsoft's investment, the most likely outcome is that OpenAI will move into the consumer business while being the research arm for Azure.

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falcor84 1039 days ago
>Businesses don't tend to do well when they directly compete with their clients.

True in general, but then we have Amazon.

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londons_explore 1039 days ago
People like Walmart still refuse to let any customer data near AWS.
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catchnear4321 1039 days ago
you wrote people. did you mean corporations?

don’t let those darn things trick you into thinking they are people. legally it gets murky, but they aren’t people. it is all just a ploy for emotional connection for the sake of taking advantage of you.

like cats.

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kridsdale3 1039 days ago
> I think they have to decide if they want to be an API provider or a product-maker. > Businesses don't tend to do well when they directly compete with their clients.

Isn't this what MSFT and GOOG do?

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