[Wowfunhappy]

> Anthropic serves an expensive product to rich people. We are glad they do that and we are doing that too, but we also feel strongly that we need to bring AI to billions of people who can’t pay for subscriptions.

But they are paying, aren't they?

Advertisements don't generate money from thin air. Advertisements cause people to spend money they otherwise would not have spent. That's why companies buy ads in the first place.

And if you're showing ads to poor people, you're probably causing them to spend money they don't have.

[nrb]

Yeah the whole cognitive disconnect that advertising is anything other than serving an expensive product to rich people deserves a smirk at minimum.

[skybrian]

It's a bit more complicated. On average, someone is paying, but averages can be misleading. As we see with free-to-play games, whales can subsidize a lot of usage by other people who don't pay a thing.

It seems like the same is true of advertising. Yes, some people are spending money but it doesn't necessarily follow that they're people who can't afford it.

[Wowfunhappy]

Don't advertisers generally know the income bracket of the person seeing the ad? Otherwise what is all the tracking for?