Artificial Intelligence (AI) software, which is what ChatGPT is, is a machine-based system encompassing a range of simple and sophisticated digital technologies capable of effectively performing highly complex tasks.
AI is aimed at reproducing or surpassing abilities in computational systems, to a large extent. Artificial intelligence machine learning models have been ‘trained’ to understand and replicate human thought processes. This is so that they can create new data similar to the training data it has been given. This is done by optimizing procedures and parameters, and coming up with predictions, inferences, recommendations, or decisions for a given set of objectives.
Thanks to its abilities, AI is currently used in many fields, such as retail to personalize shopping experiences and recommend products, transportation to build self-driving cars, web searches, digital personal assistants, machine translators, and many more. In short, it has made people rethink how they integrate information, analyze data, and use the resulting insights to improve decision-making.
The driver of AI technology development is primarily economic, so it is safe to predict that it will become one of the central technologies of the 21st century because of its primary ability to simplify tasks.
That said, in this article, we will discuss how AI software makes money. Mainly, we’ll focus on ChatGPT owing to its popularity and preference of use among millions of people;
How does AI software like ChatGPT make money?
ChatGPT is an AI-powered chat-bot designed to revolutionize the way you discover information. When prompted, it provides ‘almost’ accurate, trusted, and real-time answers to any question with features that allow you to share, review, and refine content collectively.
ChatGPT is revolutionary AI software developed by Sam Altman’s OpenAI, and we reckon it’s one of the best free AI tools. OpenAI recently said that about 350 million people — up from around 100 million in March — used its services each month as of June 2024.
But that is not the talking point: the big question is how OpenAI continues to make millions of dollars through the free version of ChatGPT, which does not show online advertisements for revenues. According to financial documents reviewed by The New York Times, OpenAI’s monthly revenue hit $300 million in August, up 1,700 per cent since the beginning of 2023, and the company expects about $3.7 billion in annual sales this year.
Well, here is the answer: ChatGPT relies on donations for funding because “its founders didn’t like the idea of artificial intelligence being used for commercial purposes.”
Secondly, it generates revenue by providing businesses with AI-powered API (Application Programming Interface) services. These services allow software programs to communicate with each other using requests and responses to retrieve or change the data within them.
Thirdly, it earns a small amount of cash when customers subscribe to ChatGPT Plus, its premium version, which offers additional control, security, team training, and tech support for $20/month.
Lastly, this AI software earns revenue from an interaction where a publisher’s content is referenced when users ask questions on their website or app.