AI won’t be free forever, and that’s something to be angry about
Isn’t it funny that many of the best AI chatbots and content generators today are based on subscription models?
Actually, it’s not funny at all. Most of these systems trained on content created by others, and most of them will still use web searches for fresh content to fuel their generative responses, while ultimately charging us for those responses.
The good news is that big AI companies like OpenAI brokers deals with media companies. That addresses some of the concerns about content scraping and training that exist between AI companies and media outlets. However, the AI landscape is still the wild west, and the picture is much murkier for visual artists.
Every time a new system like Ideogram arrives, it’s clear that the company behind it has no problem repurposing intellectual property. And as far as I can tell, they’re not paying the owners of Superman, Mickey Mouse, and countless other popular characters a dime.
It is inevitable that some of what they produce will look, sound, or read like their training material.
Don’t even get me started on YouTube creators. There are reports that Apple, Nvidia and Anthopic have trained their AIs on thousands of their videos. For a short period have been a YouTube creatorI know how much creators rely on video views (and the ad units that play on them) for their livelihoods.
I’m not suggesting that generative AI systems take artwork and information and rattle it off as their own, untouched. These systems use their training to inform their work, to know what word to say next, what brushstroke, line, or visual style makes the most sense and appeal in the context of the prompt. Inevitably, some of what they produce will look, sound, or read like their training material, and that end product would be nothing without everything the AI models have been trained on.
The Costs of AI
Building high-quality generative AIs and training the large language models behind them is expensive and time-consuming. According to a new report from the Washington PostIt took Amazon a year to train its massive Alexa AI update. The cost of that effort will likely be passed on to us.
Unlike most of the chatbots and image and video generators that have launched in recent years, Alexa AI may launch with a subscription plan. It’s not clear whether existing Prime members will get it, or at least some form of Alexa AI, for free. I pay nearly $140 a year for Amazon Prime, and I still think it’s a good value. That said, I’d expect to get Alexa AI as part of that subscription package. If I don’t, I won’t be paying another $10 a month for access to this smarter assistant, and at least I’ll still have the Alexa I’ve known and used for over a decade.
The time when AI was accessible to everyone was short, but that is changing fast. The future of AI access is clearly a matter of pay to play.
Even companies that don’t charge for AI access now are likely to do so in the future. Samsung isn’t charging for Galaxy AI, but when we asked company executives about the possibility of charging for it in the future, they said only that it would remain free through the end of 2025.
There are also reports that Apple may charge for some parts of Apple IntelligenceIt’s only rolling out small elements of its AI platform next month and through 2025, but given how much Apple makes in the billions each year from services, it makes sense that Apple would want to add AI to its services offerings and even reap a small monthly harvest from AI service fees.
A lesson well learned
In a way, I’m glad for the AI industry because they understand something that the established print media in the early days of the internet didn’t realize until it was almost too late: You can’t just give away for free something that has been the economic foundation of your business for decades.
When the internet arrived, it was seen as a completely open, ad-free space. Eventually, ads started appearing alongside the content of almost every media brand on the planet. No one charged a dime for it, because ad impressions more than made up for the lost subscription revenue. Until they didn’t. Display ads became white noise, and media companies saw their profits plummet. Eventually, brands started putting up paywalls and finding other forms of revenue, like e-commerce.
For a short time, AI was accessible to everyone, but that is changing rapidly. The future of AI access is clearly a matter of pay to play.
Despite all its flaws, the beauty of the early Internet was its wide availability. If you had a computer or could access one and were online, you were on the Internet. Yes, initially there was a digital divide between the haves and the have-nots, but because of the low barrier to entry, it was inevitable that eventually the majority of people would have access.
The path for AI access will be markedly different. With the world’s largest tech companies all deeply involved in developing their own AI, and many considering tiered access to the highest quality, most useful AI (longer videos, full-featured content writing, more powerful productivity tools), the landscape of future AI may permanently be one of haves and have-nots.
Unlike the internet, the foundation of AI is still information and content created by others, most of which will remain unpaid. It’s an imbalance that I fear will continue until all the AI and model makers figure out how to pay everyone for helping to build this AI revolution.