Saturday, September 2, 2023

The week in AI

Hi all, it's Seth in New York. It turns out generative AI companies can generate a significant amount of money, but it still may not be enou

It turns out generative AI companies can generate a significant amount of money, but it still may not be enough to pay the bills.

ChatGPT comes to the office 

OpenAI Inc. is on track to bring in $1 billion in annual revenue from businesses paying to use the technology that powers the company's best-known tool, ChatGPT. The startup is said to be earning about $80 million in revenue a month.

The new financial details came a day after OpenAI introduced a version of ChatGPT for businesses with added features and more privacy safeguards, in its most significant attempt yet to boost sales. OpenAI declined to provide details on pricing.

Even as OpenAI sees revenue accelerate, it's unclear if it's approaching profitability. ChatGPT and similar services are hugely expensive to operate because of the computing costs from training large language models. That has created an insatiable demand from AI startups for capital. Cohere, an OpenAI rival, is said to be in the process of raising more money just months after completing a $270 million funding round. (OpenAI, for its part, has raised more than $10 billion to date, mostly from Microsoft Corp.)

While AI startups figure out their business models, valuations only appear to be spiking in every corner of the booming industry. CoreWeave Inc., a cloud computing provider that's building out data centers based on Nvidia Corp.'s chips, is exploring a minority stake sale that could value the company at $8 billion or more. DataBricks Inc., a software maker that provides tools for data, analytics and artificial intelligence, is also in talks to raise funds at a $43 billion valuation.

Demand for all things AI is so high that one tiny island in the Caribbean is now seeing a windfall as a result. Anguilla, a British territory in charge of assigning web addresses that end in .ai, could bring in as much as $30 million in revenue this year from companies and individuals signing up for these domains. 

And the global AI arms race may only continue to heat up. China gave the green light for Baidu Inc. and SenseTime Group Inc. to roll out generative AI tools to the public and compete with US businesses like OpenAI.

Governments are still figuring out how to respond to the rise of AI. In the UK, lawmakers are calling for the country to step up its efforts to guard against hostile uses of AI, including bad actors who could use the technology to mislead the public. In Washington, meanwhile, Senator Chuck Schumer invited top tech CEOs, including Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, to a closed-door meeting on Sept. 13 about the impact of AI before weighing possible regulations. 

Zuckerberg and Musk may never have their cage fight, but regulators are revving up for one over AI.

One to watch

Watch the Bloomberg Originals interview with Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd on AI in dating on The Circuit With Emily Chang

The week ahead

C3.ai Inc., a software maker that pivoted its marketing to AI fairly recently, is set to report earnings results on Wednesday.

Programming note: We'll be off Monday for the US holiday. Back to you on Tuesday!

More from Bloomberg

Get Bloomberg Tech newsletters in your inbox:

  • Cyber Bulletin for coverage of the shadow world of hackers and cyber-espionage
  • Game On for reporting on the video game business
  • Power On for Apple scoops, consumer tech news and more
  • Screentime for a front-row seat to the collision of Hollywood and Silicon Valley
  • Soundbite for reporting on podcasting, the music industry and audio trends
  • Hyperdrive for expert insight into the future of cars

No comments:

Post a Comment