Develops AI research and products including the ChatGPT conversational AI assistant and GPT model APIs.openai.com ↗
2 takes · first discussed May 17, 2024
Private company — no public price to score. We track what they said; valuation-mark tracking is on the roadmap.
Chamath argues ChatGPT's consumer growth has plateaued and that the AI market is still in a 'primordial ooze' phase where basic capabilities are being commoditized; the 'Facebook of AI' has yet to be created.
Sacks argues OpenAI's most attractive business model is B2B, not B2C subscriptions, and that GPT-4o's multimodal speed improvements unlock powerful new enterprise applications that will drive monetization through API usage.
The hosts are split on OpenAI's trajectory, with Sacks taking a moderately bullish stance and Chamath remaining neutral. Sacks sees OpenAI's strongest opportunity in B2B and enterprise API monetization, arguing that GPT-4o's multimodal speed improvements unlock valuable new applications built on top of the platform. Chamath, by contrast, is skeptical of OpenAI's consumer momentum, contending that ChatGPT's growth has plateaued and that AI capabilities are being broadly commoditized, leaving the defining "Facebook of AI" consumer platform yet to be built. Both hosts implicitly agree that the B2C subscription model is not the primary value driver, but differ on whether OpenAI itself is well-positioned to capture the larger opportunity ahead.
Chamath argues ChatGPT's consumer growth has plateaued and that the AI market is still in a 'primordial ooze' phase where basic capabilities are being commoditized; the 'Facebook of AI' has yet to be created.
What it means is that there are these phases of product development... right now we're in the first, what I would call primordial ooze phase... I will maintain my perspective here, which is the quote-unquote Facebook of AI has yet to be”20:56
Sacks argues OpenAI's most attractive business model is B2B, not B2C subscriptions, and that GPT-4o's multimodal speed improvements unlock powerful new enterprise applications that will drive monetization through API usage.
I think they're going to move in more of a B2B direction over time because that's where the real money is. And probably the way they do that is by monetizing all the apps that are built on top of it.”23:22