OpenAI recently launched a subscription service called ChatGPT Pro, priced at $200 per month, which has surprised many of its users.

This launch marks a significant shift in how AI companies are marketing their products, raising concerns about the implications for human workers.

Initially, OpenAI did not fully consider the economic implications of generative AI when it first released the ChatGPT chatbot.

The development of the GPT-4 model alone incurred an estimated cost of nearly $100 million, underscoring the financial challenges associated with training large language models (LLMs).

Operating these LLMs requires substantial resources, including electricity and water for cooling data centers, with a typical ten-message conversation consuming the equivalent of a bottle of fresh water.

Moreover, running a single query through ChatGPT can cost several cents, which is significantly more than a traditional search engine query.