Is AI Overhyped?

[Astronuc]

In The Street, AI is getting worse as Google and Anthropic nerf AI models and limit usage
Evidence is mounting that the subsidization of AI is ending in real time. Will businesses still shell out for it?
https://www.thestreet.com/latest-ne...-and-anthropic-nerf-ai-models-and-limit-usage

• Users report AI models from Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI are becoming worse or more restrictive.
• Companies introduce higher prices, usage limits, and downgrade product capabilities, sparking user frustration.
• Loss of initial subsidies and rising costs may jeopardize broad AI adoption and business viability.

The rise of artificial intelligence technology a la OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google has come by many names, but one of these is new: “worse.”

That is what users are saying about AI chatbots at a time where both the U.S. stock market is turbo bullish on the AI industry and fast-growing and unprofitable AI labs prepare for potentially blockbuster IPOs.

Anthropic, in many ways, brandished itself as a firm with a superior moral framework by standing up to the U.S. Government and setting limits on how its AI models could be used. Of course, much of that goodwill was completely burned by recent controversies with the company.

Anthropic had a billing controversy by charging customers per token for using popular third-party tools. Anthropic apparently downgraded reasoning effort in Claude and had a series of other issues which made their model 'dumber'. Did Anthropic address/resolve the issues when OpenAI introduced their GPT-5.5 model?

Google announced a series of new products, unveiled a controversial change to its search engine to make it ‘AI-first’, and touted a recent price reduction for its AI plans. But customers received an email on Wednesday with some bad news: your usage will be capped.

Effective immediately, Google announced that Gemini app users would face “compute-based usage limits.” In other words, if you ask Gemini too much, they’ll lock you out for five hours, assuming you haven’t somehow hit a fairly unknown weekly limit. One consolation for AI Pro subscribers is that they get a “4x higher usage limit than non-subscribers.” AI Ultra consumers get even more than that, but at a significantly higher price.

What about OpenAI and their products, e.g., ChatGPT? Will the make similar changes?

It seems as AI companies pursue profit, access will be governed by subscription fees. High end users, who can afford it, will get greater access than those who can only afford lower subscription rates. Maybe there will be 'preferred' customers.

 

[Hornbein]

The AI investors will want their trillion dollar investments back and plenty more on top of that. Once the customers are hooked prices go up and quality goes down.