Large tech companies this week are constantly talking about AI subscriptions. Silicon Valley can't stop investing in AI, but they are a bit conflicted about how AI will bring them profits. Now, large tech companies believe they have found a solution: they bet that you will pay for their AI services every month. And in fact, many people have already taken action.
This is like a replay of streaming: the production cost of the product is high, no one wants ads, and there are many services that cost $10 to $20 per month. So, are you ready to pay for AI services like streaming?
About a year ago, OpenAI was the first to launch AI subscriptions, ChatGPT Plus for $20 per month. The service provides users with the latest features, faster response times, and access to ChatGPT during peak hours. OpenAI is doubling its efforts this month to please its users, allowing only paying users to access their new GPT store.
This week, Amazon also joined the trend of AI subscriptions. It is reported that the company has launched a super AI Alexa, available for monthly subscription. The service is tentatively named "Alexa Plus" and will be launched in June. Apparently, Amazon employees expressed concerns that people would not pay for it.
Samsung quietly announced that it will start charging users for its currently free AI service Galaxy AI before 2026. Users may have to pay for the most complex AI services, such as image generation, which must be run on expensive remote servers through the cloud.
This doesn't even mention Elon Musk's Grok ($16 per month), Midtravel ($10 per month), Perplexity ($20 per month), or other AI subscription services.
In fact, Silicon Valley has only found two ways to make money on the Internet. You can pay for subscriptions or inject ads into them. Currently, OpenAI cannot place ads in ChatGPT because it would undermine their vision of a user-centric, humanity-saving company. But these AI products need to start generating revenue, so the subscription model is currently the only real solution.
Ads will soon become part of AI, just like streaming. Netflix sells its subscription model as a utopian solution to over-commercialized TV. This allows users to buy good products instead of becoming products of advertisers. But now Netflix and all other streaming services have ads because the profit from subscriptions is far less than that from ads.
However, AI advertising also has some issues to overcome. Just as advertisers flee from X due to unpredictable content, most brands don't want their names next to anything spat out by AI chatbots. In addition, it is difficult to integrate ads without compromising the quality of information, just like Google search.
The real question is whether users will pay for subscriptions in the short term. Most people may agree that ChatGPT is cool, but maybe not "cool enough for $20 per month." This price is too high for an internet service, especially for a service that does not yet have a large number of practical use cases. Nevertheless, large tech companies still hope that you will not only pay for one AI subscription, but also for multiple AI subscriptions.
