Charles Hudson argues that consumer AI tools are exceptionally inexpensive relative to value, likening $20/month for ChatGPT to Spotify’s early value proposition and calling it a "criminally cheap price." He notes students willingly pay for ChatGPT and that he personally spends hundreds of dollars monthly on multiple AI tools for testing and learning.
Chapters
I'll say this. I remember when Spotify came out and my friend was like, can you imagine that you could have basically all of the world's music in your pocket for like 10 bucks a month? That seems like a criminally cheap price. And if I told you you can have the world's smartest supercomputer in your pocket for 20 bucks, I think most people would say that's a criminally cheap price. And the thing that's been eye opening to me is I know a lot of students who pay for ChatGPT. You know, students are cheap, but I think if a student tells you that ChatGPT is worth 20 bucks a month, if it's really worth at least 20 bucks a month to them. And I think the more interesting thing is as ChatGPT does more as perplexity pushes the envelope. Like, how many of these things are people going to pay for? As I explained to our cfo, I actually really need to pay for all of these things for testing and learning purposes. I spend hundreds of dollars a month on AI tooling. That is not normal.